The Magical Daughter
by CaptainWriter
Summary: When she hears her parents have died in a car accident, Ellea discovers that the man of whom she thought was her father turns out not to be her biological father. She discovers that her biological father is none other than Severus Snape. How will he react when he finds out he has a daughter? Will he care for her like a father? And how will Ellea react on magic? Read to find out.
1. Bad News

**Author's Note:**

**Hey people!**

**I'm very happy you want to read this fanfiction. This is the first chapter of the story and I hope you will like it. I will try to add a new chapter every week, so keep following if you like this.**

**I will upload two chapters today, so you can get in to the story.**

**I do not own anything from the Harry Potter series.**

**English is my second language, so I'm sorry for grammer issues and such.**

**Please leave a comment after you read this chapter. It would really encourage me to go on with this story.**

**Enjoy!**

I sat silently on the couch, silent of what they had just told me. I looked ouside the window. It was cloudy today. applicable to what had happened. The policemen still sat infront of me.

"You know we are sorry for you, right?" one of the men asked. He had introduced himself as officer Holton when I had let him in. He broke the silence with his question, but I wasn't planning to answer his question with words, so the silence continued. I responded with a nod.

The other man moved slightly forward in the green, old armchair. He had introduced himself as officer Jones when I had let him in. "Do you have any other family besides your parents?" he asked politely.

"No." I simply said without turning away from the window. I heard the officers moving uneasily in their chairs.

"I can imagne how you must feel." Jones said. "No you don't. Unless you lost your parents in a carcrash too." I said irritated, almost angry, while I turned to the officers. My long black hair swirled a bit in my face when I did so.

"No." Jones responded. "No, I haven't." He added and stared at the ground. He had become soo nervous that he had moved to the edge of his chair. He nearly fell of.

Silence again. Holton couldn't handle the second silence and restarted the conversation. "Since you have no other family, we will have to take measures." "Measures?" I asked confused. "Do you mean that I have to go to an orphanage?" "I think so." he replied. I turned back to the window and sighed. I didn't want to go. "We think that it would be a good idea if you would pack some stuff."

I looked up, to the old kitchen opposite to the old couch on wich I was sitting. The two men stared at me, waiting for an answer. It made me feel uncomfortabe, so I nodded in response.

I stood up to walk towards my bedroom. Stopping the conversation made me feel very good.

I opened the door, walked through the doorpost and closed the door. My hand still lay on the door knob, my glance was focussed on the ground. "What did just happen?" I asked myself. Those two men had changed my life in less than ten minutes. The muscles in her hand, wich still lay on the doorknob, began to shake.

My hand fell of the door knob, due to my shaking muscles. The muscles in my leg began to shake too. My body turned and I fell with my back against the wall. I fell on my knees and leaned against the wall. Tears filled my eyes. My hair fell over my face, but I couldn't care anymore.

For the first time since I had heard the bad news, I cryed.


	2. Away From Home

**Author's Note:**

**Hey readers!**

**I'm happy you read this story. I work really hard on it. Next chapter will appear next week, so don't forget to check it out if you like this story so far.**

**Also don't forget to leave a comment.**

**Enjoy!**

I stopped crying after 5 minutes. There were no tears left in my eyes. I realised that crying would not solve the problem. I stood up and packed my backpack. I opened my wardrobe and started packing some clothes. When I had packed some clothes, I closed my backpack that I had placed on my bed. I looked at the wal land saw the Beattles poster that my dad had given me for my birthday. Aside, a photo of me and my mom. A tear left my eye. "There are still tears left, I thought that there were none left". A quaky, little smile appeared on my face. I pulled the photo off the wal land put it in my backpack.

I opened the door and saw the officers looking at me. "Are you ready to go?" Jones asked. "Yes, I am" I said. The officers stood up and we walked to the door that led to the to the stairwell of the apartment building. "We should lock the door don't you think?"Jones asked me childish. I didn't give an answer. Jones stared at me, waiting for my answer. "Where is the key of your flat" Holton asked, breaking the silence. "In the drawer of that closet" I said. He walked tot he closet, opened the drawer and took the key. We stepped out the flat. Holton closed the door and locked it.

Jones was the first to walk down the stairs. I watched him doing it. Holton stood right behind me. I heard him breathing. I turned around and looked at his face. He made a gesture with his hand. I understood. It was my time to walk down the stairs.

We walked down the stairs. We did not make a lot of sounds with our footsteps, but ms. Oleary, who lived in the flat underneath mine, came out her flat. "Why are you making soo much nose?" she said angry. That woman was always angry at me. And I could imagne why.

Once I pet her cat wich she called Teddy. It was a sweet cat. He always sat beside my frontdoor when I came out of school, ready for his daily petting session. I had a bad day and felt pretty mirthless. I saw Teddy beside my door. I felt better right away. My feelings went from very bad to very happy. I stooped and extended my hand to his head. Teddy suddenly flew through the air, through the window behind me. I was shocked. My eyes widened. "oh crap". I ran down the stairs, opened the door and saw Teddy. Dead. His eyes were open and blood came out of his head. I stared at the cat. "What have I done?" I tought.

These kind of weird things happened now and then, some weeks more than others, but it had never been so bad as now. Normally, I broke a vase, a lamp or a glas. I could never explain how I did it and why other people couldn't do it, but my parents said that I was just fine and that I would be been able to handle it one day. How could they know? They probably wanted to cheer me up.

Ms. Oleary looked at me, waiting for an answer. "I don't think we made so much noise, but there happened something awful that you should know" I said. "Do you see me caring about your life?" she said with a despising look on her face. Then she saw officer Holton behind me. She wanted to close the door, but I put my foot on the doorstep so she couldn't close it. "My parents are dead, so please look over our flat when I am gone" I said irritated. "I don't…". I interupted her before she could finish her sentence. "I can not handle your annoying attitude right now, so do it , shut up, close the door and I will leave" I said angry now. Holton placed a hand on my shoulder. "I know that you are stredded out right now, but you have to stay calm" he said. He was right. I turned around and wanted to walk off the stairs again, but ms. Oleary said: "oh, wait, I have something for you".

She went inside her house. Holton and I had waited for around 2 minutes before officer Mickelsen yelled to us from downstairs:"what are you two doing up there?" "Are you still comming?" "Just a second!" Holton yelled back. "I'm not going to wait here all day, so hurry up!" Mickelsen yelled. Ms. Oleary came back with an envelope in her hand. "Your parents asked me to give you this if they would ever die before you had turned 11" she said. She handed me the envelope. 'For our dear Ellea' stood on the front of the envelope. It was claerly the handwriting of my mom. I turned the envelope around. It had a red wax seal on the back. there was a beast in the wax seal, but I could not see what kind of beast. Probably a family crest that I had never seen before. "Thanks" I said to ms. Oleary. "Your welcome dear". Then she closed the door. 'Dear', that word surprised me. She had never called me that before.

"Well, let's go then" Holton said. We walked down the stairs and walked out the frontdoor of the building. Jones was leaning against the car. "Are we ready now?" he asked. "Yes" I replied. We stepped into the police car. Jones and Holton sat in the front. Jones drove. I sat in the back seat. "Where are we actually going to?" I asked. "To the police station" Jones said. "Why?" I asked. "Because we don't have place for you to stay yet" "Oh" I sighed. "Don't worry, we find a place for you tomorrow" "But where am I going to sleep tonight?" "You are going to sleep in a police cell" Jones said politely. I shocked a bit. He saw the shock on my face in the rearview mirror of the car. "We will leave the door open of course and we will make it you as comfortable as we can. There will also always be someone behind the desk in the front of the police station. You can go to her if you need something" he explained. I did not react. We drove for 30 minutes without talking.

Jones parked the car next to the police station. We got out of the car and walked into the police station. I saw the woman behind a woman behind the desk. She looked like she was in her forties. Her black curls were in a sloppy ponytail. Some of her curls hung out of the ponytail, nice besides her head. She seemed very nice, but not someone to mess with.

The room wasn't as big as I had expected. The walls were white. The floor was brown, just like the desk of the woman. I looked at the clock on the wall behind her. It was already 18:30. "Hey Darla" Holton said. "Hey William!" she answered happy. "Thomas…" she said after looking at Jones. What followed were grumpy looks between Darla and Jones.

The three of us walked to Darla's desk. Darla avoided any form of contact with Jones. She turned her head to me. "Can I help you dear?"

She knew what had happened. I could see it on her facial expression. She knew who I was. She knew what she had to do. There was probably a protocol for all this. I hated lying. She was lying about everything bad that had happened. It made my so angry.

Suddenly, a chair that stood by the door left behind me flew through the air. It flew against the wall in font of it. Completely broken. Everyone was shocked and wondedered how the chair could fly. Everyone except me. These things happened regularly to me, so the flying chair wasn't really a surprise to me.

Once, I came back from school and my mom told me that we would go to a theme park the next day. I was so happy. but that feeling of intens happiness was suddenly interrupted because all three vases on the cupboard suddenly broke. My mom always told me that I was special and because of that, I couldn't tell people about it. When I wondered why, she told me the police would come and lock me up and that doctors would do scary experiments on me if I did. She scared me soo much with that. I never thought about telling someone again.

I had to come up with a solution fort he chair. So I said: "I think it was the wind". Everyone looked at me and nodded. That was probably the most reasonable reason why.


	3. This can't be true!

**Author's Note:**

**Hey readers!**

**I'm glad you read this story! This chapter will be better than the passed ones, so enjoy.**

"Well…this is the girl who..." "oh right, I heard about that" Darla said. "You can come with me dear". I said goodbye tot the officers and thanked them for the ride. I followed Darla down the hall. I saw empty offices filled with desks and empty coffee mugs. Darla opened the door on the end of the hall. She held it open for me. I saw a lot of steel doors, all closed. Except for one in the middle of the hall.

"So, you can sleep here tonight". She was referring tot the cell with the open door. Just the one which gave me chills.

She stopped walking when she stood in the doorpost of the open door. I did the same.

I looked around the cell. It was an exact gray square. All the walls were made of concrete so no one could break out with their bare hands.

The cell was like three meters high and approximately two meters above the ground was a small window of 50 centimeters. The window was shuttered so no one could look clearly in or out. Four bars verical and four bars horizontal blocked prisoners from getting their hands on the window. I could see the scratch marks on the bars. Someone had been her before me and that person really wanted to leave the cell. No wonder. This room made me feel uneasy. I could only imagne how someone who was arrested would feel inhere.

Apart from the light that came through the window, there was a small yellow light on the ceiling. Fortutely for me, it was placed in the middle, so it luminated the hole cell.

There was a toilet on the left side of the room. I expected that it would smell really filthy, but luckily the smell wasn't too bad. They must have cleaned it before I came. They really wanted to make me feel comfortable here. Sweet. I started liking Darla more.

There was a rectangle block of cencete on the right side of the room. A few pillows and a blanket lay on the block. I supposed that the actual prisioners did not have those and that Darla placed those specially for me. That thought made me feel good. I liked her even more now.

"I will leave the door open, so don't worry, I won't lock you up" she said with a smile on her face. "I will work on my desk whole night. So I will be be here when you need me oké?" I nodded. There was a short uncomfortable pause in our conversation. Then she looked at me. "I'm so sorry for you little girl". And yet again there was a short pause. "Do you want something to drink before you go to sleep?" she asked nicely. "No thank you" I answered.

"Well than, sleep well". "Thank you". I responded politely.

Dora took a last look at me before she left the room.

Now I was alone. I looked at the room again. It gave me sad feelings, but I was tired of everything that had happened today. So I walked to the concrete block that was supposed to be my bed. I sat down at one of the soft pillows and looked at the gray wall in front of me. I couls see some names carved into the wall.

Frank, Christian, Johan, Erik, Thomas... Thomas, that was the name of my father. Beautiful thoughts filled my mind.

Thinking about my father made my remember my backpack filled with my most dear belongings and the letter.

I opened my backpack and saw the letter right on top. I stared at the words on the envelope. The nice handwriting of my mom. God I missed her. Her sweet voice, her smell, her hugs.

I grabbed the letter out of my backpack. I looked at it again, but now I was wondering what would be in the letter. Were they hiding something? A confession about something? Or was it a last goodbye? My curiosity grew more and more. So, I opened it.

I read:

_Dear Ellea,_

_When you read this, we, your mom and dad, are dead. I need you to know that we both really love you and will never stop loving you._

_Me and your dad need to tell you two things and those are the actual reason why we are writing this letter. We would have loved to tell this you in person, but unfortunately we couldn't. We wanted to wait until you were eleven. You will read why._

_All those weird things that happen to you (I mean flying stuff, stuff that explodes and so on) is because you are magical. This time I don't mean it as a compliment. I really mean that you can do magic and you are not the only one. A lot of kids are born with this gift. All the magical kids, like yourself, go to a special school, called Hogwarts, when they are eleven. On Hogwarts, the kids learn how to contol ad use their magic. You will go there too when you are old enough._

_There exist two worlds: the Muggle World and the Wizarding World. We live in the Muggle World. Muggles are people that can't do magic. People like your dad, Thomas. Most people who live in the Wizarding World can do magic. People who are born with magical abilities are called witches and wizards. Entire families of magical people live in the Wizarding World. Someone who is born into a magical family but can't do magic is called a squib. That's what I, your mom, am._

_Living in the Wizarding World isn't nice when you are a squib. In the magical society, squibs are not worth the same as witches and wizards. We squibs get bullied by the witches and wizards, because we can't do magic. My family was ashamed of me. For having a squib in the family. I went to a special school for squibs. We learned the same things that you learn on school. I did have some squib friends from school. We all hid fort he magical kids in the holidays. Life was miserablel that way._

_When it was summer holiday in 1977, I was eighteen. I was hanging around with some squib friends on a bench in the woods. We hoped to be safe there for all the magical kids, but we were wrong. Five wizards that lived in our town came from behind. They flew above our heads. Me and my friends started running through the woods. We all ran in different directions. One magical boy flew after me. He kicked me on the back. I fell with my head on a stone and lost my consciousness._

_I woke up in your biological dad's house._

_Yes, your biological dad. I need to tell you that Thomas isn't your biological dad. I'm sorry that I have always lied to you. I am now going to continue telling you the story about how you were born._

The letter continued, but I couldn't get myself to read again. What did mom just wrote? "Dad is not my dad?! This can't be true!" I screamed inside my head. I leaned against the concrete wall behind my and closed my eyes. Sweat appeared on my face. The realisation hit me soo hard, but I needed to read on.

_I lay on his couch. When I tried to sit up, I saw him. He was reading a book until he heard me. He turned around and we looked in each orher's eyes. I saw glittering in his dark eyes. His long black hair sparkled in the sunlight that came into the windows. I felt love for him right away. I could feel that he felt the same for me._

_He told me that his name was Severus Snape and told me that he had found me in the woods. He took me to his home, so he could take care of me. He asked me how a girl like meI fell unconscious in the woods. I made up- because I saw his wand in his pocket and I didn't want to scare him with the fact that I am a squib. He might have kicked me out of his house. I wanted him to love me back, so I wanted to create love and tell him later- that I was looking for a special plant for a potion that I wanted to make. He asked which plant because he maybe had it for me. I muttered something unprepable about that I liked plants but didn't remember the name. and asked him if he liked the brewing of potions. I saw the glittering in his eyes when I asked that. He told me about his fascination for potions, his place in The Slug Club during his time at Hogwarts and his ambition to become the potionmaster at Hogwarts himself. He told me everything while he sat next to me on the couch. I realized later that he was happy to have someone who was interested in him after a long time, because he told me later about his bullies at Hogwarts._

_We talked for hours- I was soo happy that he didn't ask about my time at Hogwarts or anything that would reveal that I am a squib-, until I realized that it became increasingly darker outside and that the evening made it's attendance._

_I said that it was better if I headed home and after he nodded, I walked out of his livingroom, into his hallway, to his frontdoor. I said, while walking, that I would stop by his house the upcomming days if he would like that._

_He stood at the other end of the hallway and said that he would love that. He also offered me a flight home on his broomstick if I wanted. Then I realized that I had no idea where I was outside his home and that I had no idea how to get home if I didn't find any points that could indicate where I was. So, I accepted his offer._

_I gave him my address and he knew where it was. It was somewhere on the other side of the woods._

_When I sat behind him on his flying broomstick, he told me to hold on tight to his hip, so I did. On the flight back home, I laid my head on his back. I could feel his muscles first very tense but three seconds later they were relaxed._

_We landed somewhere deep in the forrest. It was a beautiful place with grass and many kinds of flowers. Trees surrounded the place. It gave a sense of intimacy that effected me and Severus._

_The moonlight made his hair sparkle again. His eyes focused on me. He told me that he came there often to look for plants for his potions and because I liked plants he wanted to show me the place. I was surprised that he remembered my pretext about being in the woods. It ment that he really listened to what I had said. He was really as interested in me as I was in him._

_He stood behind me and laid a hand on my shoulder. "Isn't it magnificent?" He said while looking in the distance. He turned around and I kissed him. First, he was surprised that I kissed him soo suddenly, but then he kissed me back with his passion. I pulled back and said: "I already wanted to do this from first moment I saw you". "Another thing we have in commen" he said back with a smile. We started kissing again. Arms around each other._

_We stopped kissing and pulled back. I told him that he was not only talented in potions, but also in something else. I winked. His face turned into a smile again._

_He showed me the flower. "Since you know a lot about plants, you know what this is right" he said, looking at me. "It is a Flauencia" I said with a smile on my face. . A Flauencia is a flower that only grows in the Magical World. It is white and looks like a mix of a rose and lavender. It is beautiful. I hope you will see it one day to. I was relieved that I knew this plant, otherwise he would discover my lies._

_"You are right" he said with a smile. "Do you know what meaning the Flauencia has?" he asked. I thought deep but had no clue. "You both have a lot in commen" he said. He must have seen me thinking, because he said: "It represents beauty, love, cleanliness and cleverness. The cleanliness comes from the color, white". I smiled. "Another thing we have in common" iI said, still having the smile on my face. He laughed. "And also funny, you keep surprising me!_

_One thing led to another and we had seks in field._

I hadn't read the whole letter yet, but I needed another pause. The realisation hit me even harder now. "Dad isn't my dad!" I kept screaming in my head. I needed to read on to know everything about it. I put myself together and read on.

**Author's Note:**

**Wow. The letter hit her really hard. What will be in the next part of the letter? What will she do with the information in the letter? Leave your thoughts in the comments.**

**See you next week!**


	4. New life, here I come?

**Author's Note:**

**Hey readers!**

**I'm glad you read this story! This chapter will be better than the passed ones, so enjoy.**

"Well…this is the girl who..." "oh right, I heard about that" Darla said. "You can come with me dear". I said goodbye tot the officers and thanked them for the ride. I followed Darla down the hall. I saw empty offices filled with desks and empty coffee mugs. Darla opened the door on the end of the hall. She held it open for me. I saw a lot of steel doors, all closed. Except for one in the middle of the hall.

"So, you can sleep here tonight". She was referring tot the cell with the open door. Just the one which gave me chills.

She stopped walking when she stood in the doorpost of the open door. I did the same.

I looked around the cell. It was an exact gray square. All the walls were made of concrete so no one could break out with their bare hands.

The cell was like three meters high and approximately two meters above the ground was a small window of 50 centimeters. The window was shuttered so no one could look clearly in or out. Four bars verical and four bars horizontal blocked prisoners from getting their hands on the window. I could see the scratch marks on the bars. Someone had been her before me and that person really wanted to leave the cell. No wonder. This room made me feel uneasy. I could only imagne how someone who was arrested would feel inhere.

Apart from the light that came through the window, there was a small yellow light on the ceiling. Fortutely for me, it was placed in the middle, so it luminated the hole cell.

There was a toilet on the left side of the room. I expected that it would smell really filthy, but luckily the smell wasn't too bad. They must have cleaned it before I came. They really wanted to make me feel comfortable here. Sweet. I started liking Darla more.

There was a rectangle block of cencete on the right side of the room. A few pillows and a blanket lay on the block. I supposed that the actual prisioners did not have those and that Darla placed those specially for me. That thought made me feel good. I liked her even more now.

"I will leave the door open, so don't worry, I won't lock you up" she said with a smile on her face. "I will work on my desk whole night. So I will be be here when you need me oké?" I nodded. There was a short uncomfortable pause in our conversation. Then she looked at me. "I'm so sorry for you little girl". And yet again there was a short pause. "Do you want something to drink before you go to sleep?" she asked nicely. "No thank you" I answered.

"Well than, sleep well". "Thank you". I responded politely.

Dora took a last look at me before she left the room.

Now I was alone. I looked at the room again. It gave me sad feelings, but I was tired of everything that had happened today. So I walked to the concrete block that was supposed to be my bed. I sat down at one of the soft pillows and looked at the gray wall in front of me. I couls see some names carved into the wall.

Frank, Christian, Johan, Erik, Thomas... Thomas, that was the name of my father. Beautiful thoughts filled my mind.

Thinking about my father made my remember my backpack filled with my most dear belongings and the letter.

I opened my backpack and saw the letter right on top. I stared at the words on the envelope. The nice handwriting of my mom. God I missed her. Her sweet voice, her smell, her hugs.

I grabbed the letter out of my backpack. I looked at it again, but now I was wondering what would be in the letter. Were they hiding something? A confession about something? Or was it a last goodbye? My curiosity grew more and more. So, I opened it.

I read:

_Dear Ellea,_

_When you read this, we, your mom and dad, are dead. I need you to know that we both really love you and will never stop loving you._

_Me and your dad need to tell you two things and those are the actual reason why we are writing this letter. We would have loved to tell this you in person, but unfortunately we couldn't. We wanted to wait until you were eleven. You will read why._

_All those weird things that happen to you (I mean flying stuff, stuff that explodes and so on) is because you are magical. This time I don't mean it as a compliment. I really mean that you can do magic and you are not the only one. A lot of kids are born with this gift. All the magical kids, like yourself, go to a special school, called Hogwarts, when they are eleven. On Hogwarts, the kids learn how to contol ad use their magic. You will go there too when you are old enough._

_There exist two worlds: the Muggle World and the Wizarding World. We live in the Muggle World. Muggles are people that can't do magic. People like your dad, Thomas. Most people who live in the Wizarding World can do magic. People who are born with magical abilities are called witches and wizards. Entire families of magical people live in the Wizarding World. Someone who is born into a magical family but can't do magic is called a squib. That's what I, your mom, am._

_Living in the Wizarding World isn't nice when you are a squib. In the magical society, squibs are not worth the same as witches and wizards. We squibs get bullied by the witches and wizards, because we can't do magic. My family was ashamed of me. For having a squib in the family. I went to a special school for squibs. We learned the same things that you learn on school. I did have some squib friends from school. We all hid fort he magical kids in the holidays. Life was miserablel that way._

_When it was summer holiday in 1977, I was eighteen. I was hanging around with some squib friends on a bench in the woods. We hoped to be safe there for all the magical kids, but we were wrong. Five wizards that lived in our town came from behind. They flew above our heads. Me and my friends started running through the woods. We all ran in different directions. One magical boy flew after me. He kicked me on the back. I fell with my head on a stone and lost my consciousness._

_I woke up in your biological dad's house._

_Yes, your biological dad. I need to tell you that Thomas isn't your biological dad. I'm sorry that I have always lied to you. I am now going to continue telling you the story about how you were born._

The letter continued, but I couldn't get myself to read again. What did mom just wrote? "Dad is not my dad?! This can't be true!" I screamed inside my head. I leaned against the concrete wall behind my and closed my eyes. Sweat appeared on my face. The realisation hit me soo hard, but I needed to read on.

_I lay on his couch. When I tried to sit up, I saw him. He was reading a book until he heard me. He turned around and we looked in each orher's eyes. I saw glittering in his dark eyes. His long black hair sparkled in the sunlight that came into the windows. I felt love for him right away. I could feel that he felt the same for me._

_He told me that his name was Severus Snape and told me that he had found me in the woods. He took me to his home, so he could take care of me. He asked me how a girl like meI fell unconscious in the woods. I made up- because I saw his wand in his pocket and I didn't want to scare him with the fact that I am a squib. He might have kicked me out of his house. I wanted him to love me back, so I wanted to create love and tell him later- that I was looking for a special plant for a potion that I wanted to make. He asked which plant because he maybe had it for me. I muttered something unprepable about that I liked plants but didn't remember the name. and asked him if he liked the brewing of potions. I saw the glittering in his eyes when I asked that. He told me about his fascination for potions, his place in The Slug Club during his time at Hogwarts and his ambition to become the potionmaster at Hogwarts himself. He told me everything while he sat next to me on the couch. I realized later that he was happy to have someone who was interested in him after a long time, because he told me later about his bullies at Hogwarts._

_We talked for hours- I was soo happy that he didn't ask about my time at Hogwarts or anything that would reveal that I am a squib-, until I realized that it became increasingly darker outside and that the evening made it's attendance._

_I said that it was better if I headed home and after he nodded, I walked out of his livingroom, into his hallway, to his frontdoor. I said, while walking, that I would stop by his house the upcomming days if he would like that._

_He stood at the other end of the hallway and said that he would love that. He also offered me a flight home on his broomstick if I wanted. Then I realized that I had no idea where I was outside his home and that I had no idea how to get home if I didn't find any points that could indicate where I was. So, I accepted his offer._

_I gave him my address and he knew where it was. It was somewhere on the other side of the woods._

_When I sat behind him on his flying broomstick, he told me to hold on tight to his hip, so I did. On the flight back home, I laid my head on his back. I could feel his muscles first very tense but three seconds later they were relaxed._

_We landed somewhere deep in the forrest. It was a beautiful place with grass and many kinds of flowers. Trees surrounded the place. It gave a sense of intimacy that effected me and Severus._

_The moonlight made his hair sparkle again. His eyes focused on me. He told me that he came there often to look for plants for his potions and because I liked plants he wanted to show me the place. I was surprised that he remembered my pretext about being in the woods. It ment that he really listened to what I had said. He was really as interested in me as I was in him._

_He stood behind me and laid a hand on my shoulder. "Isn't it magnificent?" He said while looking in the distance. He turned around and I kissed him. First, he was surprised that I kissed him soo suddenly, but then he kissed me back with his passion. I pulled back and said: "I already wanted to do this from first moment I saw you". "Another thing we have in commen" he said back with a smile. We started kissing again. Arms around each other._

_We stopped kissing and pulled back. I told him that he was not only talented in potions, but also in something else. I winked. His face turned into a smile again._

_He showed me the flower. "Since you know a lot about plants, you know what this is right" he said, looking at me. "It is a Flauencia" I said with a smile on my face. . A Flauencia is a flower that only grows in the Magical World. It is white and looks like a mix of a rose and lavender. It is beautiful. I hope you will see it one day to. I was relieved that I knew this plant, otherwise he would discover my lies._

_"You are right" he said with a smile. "Do you know what meaning the Flauencia has?" he asked. I thought deep but had no clue. "You both have a lot in commen" he said. He must have seen me thinking, because he said: "It represents beauty, love, cleanliness and cleverness. The cleanliness comes from the color, white". I smiled. "Another thing we have in common" iI said, still having the smile on my face. He laughed. "And also funny, you keep surprising me!_

_One thing led to another and we had seks in field._

I hadn't read the whole letter yet, but I needed another pause. The realisation hit me even harder now. "Dad isn't my dad!" I kept screaming in my head. I needed to read on to know everything about it. I put myself together and read on.

**Author's Note:**

**Wow. The letter hit her really hard. What will be in the next part of the letter? What will she do with the information in the letter? Leave your thoughts in the comments.**

**Thanks for your review Lizzy Lizard Snape!**

**See you next week!**


	5. My plan

**Author's Note:**

**Hey readers!**

**A new chapter. Enjoy!**

Wow, I was surprised. My first thought was: "how could they ever hide something like that from me!? I am their daughter! Or at least mom's daughter! And by the way, a witch, me, don't think so!"

"This is not the right time and place to be angry" I admonished myself. Reminding myself of the fact that bad and strange things happened if I was angry. Unexplainable things. "Maybe I am a witch after all. How else could I do such things?" I realised.

"Mom has given me three weeks to find my dad" I thougt. I took a small pause. "Mr. Snape". Another pause. "Severus". And another pause. "Or whatever, I just need to find him.

I needed time to think. "When do I leave? Right now? Or tomorrow? If I wait until tomorrow, I can have a good sleep and have enough energy for my quest, but if I haven't woken up before the cops come, I probably can't get away from here. If I leave now, I can probably get away unnoticed, but than I have to sleep on the streets. I think leaving now is better, so let's do that". I have never liked taking unnecessary risks.

I stood up from the improvised bed, packed my backpack with all my stuff and walked to the door. I peeked around the doorpost and looked left and right. No one in the hallway. Good.

I wanted to walk out of the prison cell when I heard someone loudly snoring. I startled. The sound came from my right side, in the direction of the offices. It was presumably Dora. I hoped it was her, so I could get away easily, but the snoring sounded very masculine, so the hope disappeared as quickly as it had come. The sound seemed to come from behind a closed prison cell door. Presumably a prisioner. Presumably? "Why else would he be here, Ellea?" I thought mockingly.

Another snoring sound came from the same direction. I decided to not pay much attention to it and just go on.

I sneaked to the second corridor, the hall with all the offices. Luckily, the man in the prison cell didn't wake up. Good.

I sighed when I had reached the door to the second corridor. I had been soo tense during my sneaking. Afraid of waking the man up. He could destroyed my whole plan. The man hadn't woke up, so I was glad about that, but then I realized that this was just the first thing that had to succeed in order to escape, the first out of many.

I sighed again. "This will become a long night," I told myself "but you must go on, no matter what."

I sneaked further, into the second corridor. All of the offices were still empty. Good.

I heard snoring from the direction of Dora's desk. Great. Now I could easily pass her and get out of here.

I still sneaked through the corridor and was almost halfway, when I heard loud male voices talking to each other before Dora asked: "why did you bring this man here, Sam? I hope for you that it's a good reason, you woke me up!" Apparently, Dora had been sleeping at her desk. Who wouldn't in her position. I imagined there would not be much to do in a police station at night.

"He drove in his car while he was drunk." "And he still is." the other man interrupted him. The first man frowned at him in disapproval.

"He may sleep in a prson cell until he is sober again." The first man said as they passed Dora's desk. "That's a good reason." she responded.

The men came closer to the door wich let to the corridor in which I was. The men were more occupied with lifting up the drunken man than with looking to where they needed to go. My luck, cause now I had time to jump into one of the empty offices. The men passed me and walked into the other corridor, wich contained the cells.

The drunken man kept making strange noises and shouting bad words of which my mom always said they were forbidden.

They walked into a prison cell, still carrying the drunken man. This was my chance to get back to my prison cell.

I had to. Dora was awake now, I couldn't pass her unnoticed. And even if I passed her unnoticed, there still was the chance of the two cops looking into my cell to answer their question: why is that door open? No, getting out of the police station right now wasn't an option.

I ran as fast and as silent as I could back to my prison cell, dumped my backpack next to the improvised bed, picked up the blankets and rolled myself on the concrete rectangle. Three seconds later, one of the two cops stood right infront of the door of my prison cell. He closed the door with the smooth movement wich indicated that he had done that multiple times. The door fell into the lock and before I had realised that he had locked me up, he had walked out of the corridor and closed the door to the hallway with all the prison cells.

"Oh, no!" I thought desperately. I sat up and looked at the door. "Really, just now!? Didn't he see me or what!?" I thought angrily.

"Don't get angry" I thought to myself. "Than bad things happen."

I sighed and let a lot of tense leave my body, but it wasn't enough.

I jumped out of my improvised bed, ran to the door and started banging on it. The sound of skin on cold metal was very loud, but nobody heard it, so I started to yell. "Hello!? Anybody there!? Does someone here me!? Please, I'm stuck in here! The door is supposed to be open! Please open the door!"

I wasn't afraid of being locked up for the night- I knew that Dora wouldn't forget me-. I was afraid of losing my chance of escaping. Dora would let me out of the prison cell in the morning and she would watch me all the time after that, if there was time after that. They could also bring me to an orphanage right away, cause I had no family besides my parents- my dad Thomas' parents had already passed away. My mom's family lived somewhere in the Magical World, so no option for the police. And Severus was out of the picture. I couldn't ask the polce to help me find him. What could I tell them? The letter contained stuff about magic and I didn't think they would believe that.- and Severus.

The banging and yelling had not the result I had hoped for, no one reacted, but I kept on going.

I was still yelling and banging on the door when I heard a reaction. "Stop making soo much noise!" Someone shouted angry. "I'm soo relieved that someone noticed me." I said with a sigh. "Please open the door." I begged. "Stop talking! I'm trying to sleep here! I can't get you out kid! We are both prisioners here and the intention of it is that we can't get out!" He shouted.

It was the drunken guy. I could have guessed it. He spoke very roaring and dropped a breather in the middle of the sentence. A strangely placed breather.

"Shut up you two! I try to sleep!" another man shouted. I imagned it had to be the other man in a prison cell. The same one that had been snoring when I sneaked passed him.

I ignored them and silence filled the corridor again.

I had accepted that no one would come to open the door, so I had to spend the night in the prison cell. "It isn't that bad" I tried to convince myself. I didn't believe myself.

I rolled myself upon the concrete rectangle again. I pulled the blankets over my body and stared at the concrete ceiling. "Can this day get worse?" I asked my own mind. "Just try to forget about everything right now and get some sleep. You deserved it." My mind answered. My mind was right, I was tired and really needed sleep.

I rolled on the side of my body and fell asleep right away.

I woke up with the light shining through the window. The door was still closed. I wondered what time it was, but I had no watch or whatever, so I had no idea.

After going to the toilet and trying to look out of the window- no succeed. I wasn't tall enough.-, I was bored. "What would prisioners do inhere?" I asked myself. "The intention is that they think about what they did wrong right? Than they probably do that. But what am I going to do? I didn't do anything wrong."

I realised I still had to make an action plan for after I sneaked away from here, so that's what I did.

"When someone opens the door, I can't run. The will catch me. So I have to cooperate. There is a chance that I have to stay here for another night, than I can try the same thing again, but I don't think I have to stay here. If they take me out of here, we will probably leave with a car. If not, I can say that I have to go to the toilet. And when we go in a building where I can pee, I get away, unnoticed. If we do leave with a car, I can do the same."

"That's a great plan!" I told myself silently.

"But wait. Than I am gone. They will find that out. They will probalbly search for me. First the cops who took me out, than more and more and more cops! Maybe I will be all over the news! Everyone in England will know my face! I won't be safe! They will find me!" I thought in panic.

"Don't panic. Than bad things happen." I told myself calmly. I sighed and went on planning.

"This will happen. Cops will look for me. I just have to be very careful." I thought. "I can do this!" I encouraged myself. Still, I didn't really convinced myself.

No one had opened the door yet. I sighed and wondered about when Dora would come.

"Oké, so first I need to get that owl Rowan, than maybe getting some money that's in my house and than going to Spinner's End. I will later find out how. By train or something. But what if he isn't at home? Sending him a letter per owl? To where? Work? I mean, he has to work somewhere." My face frowned. Thoughts ran through my mind. "Where would a wizard work? I could ask his neighbours? No, in the Magical World no one knew him, so why would people in my world know him? He liked to be alone. Why would that be different now? My mom at least wrote that... the letter! Didn't she wrote that he had a dream to become something!?"

I ran to my backpack, that still stood next to the concrete rectangle, to get the letter. After I had opened the backpack, I hung above the bag and was wildly searching. I found it fast and opened it again. I searched for the right paragraph, than the right sentence... "Yes, got it!" I said outloud and startled because of the noise I made. I read: He told me about his fascination for potions, his place in the Slug Club during his time at Hogwarts and his ambition to become the potionmaster at Hogwarts himself.

"Potionmaster at Hogwarts" I thought to myself. "I can write a letter to Hogwarts to see if he is the potionmaster now. And to ask were he lives right now. Maybe he doesn't live at Spinner's End anymore. And I can ask, if he doesn't work there, if they know him and want to help me find him." My eyes sparkled. I had a plan, a very good plan! A plan that gave me hope.

"So, first I escape the cops" I said with a smile on my face. Those things normally only happen in books and now I'm in such a story.

"Than I get the owl, than maybe I can get some money, than I sent a letter to Hogwarts wherever that might be and than I go to Spinner's End wherever that might be." I said annoyed. The thought of not knowing where those places were, annoyed me, but the plan was great and I told myself I would find out where Spinner's End was later by searching it on a map.

I put the letter back into my backpack and made myself ready for when the door opened.

I stood ready infront op the door was still not open. I was bored again, but now there was nothing that still had to be done.

Taking another sleep is what I did.

When the door opened, I was still asleep. I woke up by the sound of moving metal and startled out of my sleep.

"Don't be scared!" I sweet voice said. Then, I saw the face of the voice, it was Dora. My muscels relaxed.

"Did you close the door?" she asked sweet. "No, a police officer did it last night." I answered. "Oh dear," she said with frowned eyebrows, a frown regret. "I am soo sorry for that! Did you feel locked up, dear?" she asked, her voice was still full of regret. I told her of my yelling and banging on the door and my experience with the other prisioners.

She went down on her knees, just in front of me and grabbed my hands. She listened very good and didn't lose her gaze on me.

I hoped to achieve that the police officers wouldn't watch me that good as a sign of regret. Then I could escape very easy. That's why I let my eyes fill with tears during my story. I lied to Dora. I played with her feelings to achieve something I wanted. it felt so bad. She had done so much for me, so much good, but I had to do it. It was necessary to find Severus, so the bad feeling softened a bit.

Dora believed my tears and hugged me. That made my feel even worse about it.

"Come on dear" Dora said nicely after I was done with my play. "We are going to get you a nice breakfast." I smiled in response while wiping my fake tears away.

**Author's Note:**

**A good plan? Will it succeed?**

**Don't forget to review.**

**See you next week!**


	6. The great escape

I grabbed my backpack and we walked out of the prison cell, Dora had put her arm around me.

We walked through the corridor with the prison cells, then the corridor with the offices- wich were a bit more crowded now- and then to her desk in the front of the police station.

Dora grabbed her handbag, asked a cop, who just walked into the police station, if he wanted to tell the rest of the cops in the offices she was gone for the next two hours and then we walked to her car.

It was a small and old one. When I looked at the brand, I saw that it was a Renault. She opened a door that let to seat next to the driver's seat and gestured me to get in, so I did. She took the driver's seat and started the car. "There we go." she said with a smile on her face, while looking at me. I gave her a smile in return, even though I wasn't in the mood to smile.

She turned around and placed her arm on the back of her seat. She looked backwards with one hand on the wheel and drove out of her parking spot. On both sides were cars and still she did it in seconds. She did it faster than my father had always done. I was impressed.

"Wow, you do that faster than my dad has always done that." I said while looking at her with a smile. She laughed. "We police officers get trainings for these kind of things." she said while we drove of the parking place.

"Where are we going?" I asked curiously after our conversation about her trainings. "We are going to my favorite restaurant to get some breakfast." she answered without looking at me.

No new conversations arose. Dora was very focussed on the road. I couln't blame her. The road was very crowded.

The sun began to shine heavily. Dora asked if could get her sunglasses out of the glove compartment infront of me. I opened it and saw some peppermints, a noteblock, two pens a big book- the title on the side said: A map of complete England- and her sunglasses.

A map of complete England. That was useful. I still needed to find Spinner's End, so why not now?

After I had given Dora her sunglasses, I asked her: "Dora, might I look at your map of England?" I pointed at the book. "Yeah, sure." she said absently.

I grabbed the book out of the glove compartment and it put on my lap. I went to the back and searched for Spinner's End. "Where are you looking for?" Dora asked with a fast look at me.

"I'm looking for a small town. My parents and I once went there for vacation. I was very young and now I'm wondering where it actually is." I said monotonous. I was soo happy that lie came out that fastly.

Silence again. Dora was focussing on the traffic and I was still searching for Spinner's End.

"Your parents" Dora said. "I think we need to talk about that." She gave me a quick look before her gaze returned tot he road again. I didn't respond, I was deeply in thought. "How can there be soo much places with an 'S' !?" I thought angrily.

"Do you have any family where you can go to? Who can care for you? Like grandparents or uncles or aunts..." I interrupted by saying: "no, I don't." and went on with searching.

I couldn't tell her about Severus or the other family I had read about. What could I tell her. "Hey Dora, I do have family. They are wizards and live in a special world. Oh, and by the way, the man who I thought was my father isn't actually my biological father. My biological dad is a wizard too. Can you give me a ride?" That was obviously a no go.

"No one?" she asked sadly. "No one." I said without any emotion. "That must have been a lonely christmas." She monotonously. "If you don't know different, than it's not that bad." I responded absently, still searching for Spinner's End. "I think you are right" Dora said.

Silence again. No sounds other than the sounds of the car. The both of us were silent, but my head was busy. I needed to keep on searching, but I was thinking about christmas. It maybe was lonely, but I had my family. They had given me more love than a big family could do. And now they were dead.

The car drove over a bump. The book flew in the air and landed on my lap again. It pulled me out of my reverie. I looked at the open book and remembered that I had to find Spinner's End.

Two minutes later, I had found it. Page 394, block 4B the map said. I looked it up and had finally found Spinner's End. It appeared to be in a large town in the midlands of England, Cokeworth.

Now I knew where to go. It was a long trip from where I was, but if I could lay my hands on the cash my parents had at home, it would be less bad.

"Did you find it?" Dora asked "yes." I simply said. "And... where was it?" "Somewhere on a lake" I said curtly. And the silence arose again.

Finaly we had reached our destination. Dora's favorite restaurant. Sloppy Moe's stood on the frontage. It was located in an quiet neighborhood. A few shops and houses, but no one on the streets.

The building looked old and very grey. Fatty black smoke came out of the chimney. The parking lot was almost empty. Only three other cars.

When we came in, Dora greeted the man behind the bar. "Hey Moe!" she said cheerfully. "Hey Dora." Moe replied as happy as Dora had done.

We took place at the bar and Moe came to us. "What does the ladys want to eat and drink?" he asked charmingly. "Do you like an omelette and milk?" Dora asked. "Yes." I replied. "Than give us two of your best omelettes and two glasses of milk, Moe." Dora said. "Consider it done, madame." Moe said as charmingly as he had done before.

We waited in silence. When I looked around, I saw three women and four men. All in nice clothes. They probably ate their breakfast here before work.

When I looked at the clock a saw it was 9:00. I expected it to be later, cause the trip to the restaurant had seemed like an eternity.

Our food came ten minutes later. The food was great and I could understand why this was her favorite restaurant. Dora was clearly someone who didn't care about how things looked from the outside, but cared about the result. A good quality.

When we were almost done with our food, Dora asked: "do you know where childeren without parents or any other family go?" I looked up from my plate. I knew where this conversation would go to.

"Yes." I said bluntly, afraid of what was coming. "Where do they go than?" Dora asked clearly annoyed. She was clearly done with my curt behavior.

"They go to orphanages." I replied without any emotion. "Correct." Dora said with the same intonation as mine had.

"So, that's where you will sent me?" I asked without looking at her. "Yes." she said sadly. "But people can adopt you and I'm sure they will. You are a realy nice girl!" She added happily and placed her hand on my shoulder. I didn't look at her and continued eating. I hated her attitude about this. She wanted to cheer me up, like this wasn't as bad as it seemed.

"Why do you say this!? Do you think this isn't that bad!? My parents are dead! Please shut up! I just want to eat my food!" I shouted at her. The rest of the people in the restaurant stopped talking and stared at us. Dora stared at me. I scowled at her, but stopped and returned to eating.

Our plates were almost empty when I asked: "can I go to the bathroom?" "Sure." Dora said. "It's the second door on the left." She pointed at a curtain in the corner. Perfect. If there was a window in the hallway, she couldn't see me climb out of it.

I walked to the curtain without looking back at Dora. She had been soo nice to me, but saying goodbye or thanking her for everything she had done, would create suspicion. Maybe I would see her again later in my life, than I would thank her, but now wasn't the right moment. I needed to find Severus.

When I had passed the curtain, I saw an grubby corridor. The wallpaper left the walls, there were moisture places in the ceiling and there was mold around the doorposts, but no windows. No luck.

I walked into the second door and saw other doors that let to the toilets. When I opened a door I saw just a dirty toilet bowl. No luck either. I opened the door next to it. No window as well. I had opened all the doors, but no windows. I lost more and more hope each time I opened a door.

"What now!?" I asked myself out loud in panic. "Keep calm, keep calm, just think." I sighed to let all the stress out. "Dora will come for me when I'm away to long. If I lock a door from outside, she thinks that I'm in that toilet. That gives me some more time to get away. Brilliant!"

I did like I had thought and locked one of the doors. I smiled at the result. It would gain me some more time.

"Now I need to look for a way out." I said out loud.

I walked out of the bathroom and returned to the filthy corridor. On the right was the curtain. On the left was a stairs that let to somewhere underneath the corridor. "That could lead to the basement. Basements sometimes have windows. Small ones, but I could try to fit trough." I thought.

I ran as quick and as silent as I could down the stairs. It was dark downstairs, but the light that came trough two small windows made the view good.

The two windows were two meters above the ground and looked out over the corner of the asphalted parking lot of the restaurant. The window in the back was close to a hedge wich separated the parking lot of the restaurant and the parking lot of a shop.

I needed to get to the window wich was closest to the hedge and looked around the basement for something to stand on. I saw an old table. "That will do." I said to myself. So I pulled the table to the window and hoped that it hadn't made soo much noise as I thought. Nobody had comen down when the table was on it's place, so I apparently not.

I stepped on the table and opened the window. No one at the parking lot. Good.

I lifted my backpack through the window and I followed, climbing out of the small window. "That was easier than I thought" I thought when I was outside.

The hedge was close. I crawled towards it- to not be on the same level as the windows of the restaurant. Than Dora would see me. I was so close now. I looked back to see if someone saw me, but still, no one is there. The place still looked abandoned. Good for me.

Now I knew it was safe to go on, I crawled through the hedge and saw the shop. It was a shop in wich people could by all kinds of stuff. It seemed closed like all the shops in the street now, eventhough it was morning.

I looked around. I had never been in this part of my town before.

There was no time to find out. I needed to run, so that's what I did. I ran through many streets for what seemed like hours, but I didn't know where I was.

On the end of the street, in which I was, I saw a bus stop. I knew there were citymaps by bus stops, so that could be very useful.

When I had reached the bus stop, I looked at the citymap. "And I am here" I said still out loud, while looking an the words 'you are here' on the other side of the map. My house was at least a half an hour with the bus and walking would take more than an hour.

"Am I going to walk or do I take the bus. If I take the bus, I need to get some money for the bus and quick, the bus is coming in ten minutes." I noticed on a sign next tot he bus stop.

I decided that I would walk, cause getting enough money in ten minutes wouldn't work.

The walk home was 75 minutes, but seemed like an eternity. I was soo tensed by the thought: "what if they find me?" I had pulled the hood of my sweater over my head and hoped that no one would even see me.

**Author's Note:**

**Hey reader!**

**Will her plan succeed? Or is she going to get caught by the police?**

**Answers?**

**See you next week!**


	7. On the move

Nothing strange had happened when I reached my home.

The yellowish white building looked the same as I had left it. The balconies were still covered with flowers, tables and chairs.

I had the key to open the building and the one to get into my house. Good. Otherwise, getting into my house would be soo much harder.

The staircase was made of concrete. Also good, cause that didn't make soo much sound when I ran upstairs with my sneakers.

I opened my house as silently as I could and saw the same furniture and other stuff I remembered. Everything still stood at the same place. It still felt like home. However, the feeling of my family had faded away. The feeling of 'us' was gone. It was only 'me' now.

I knew my parents had some cash money somewhere. I only needed to find it.

"If I was dad, where would I hide my cash?" I said out loud. My dad had always been a simple man, so I looked inside his wardrobe and there it was. 100 pounds cash. A smile appeared on my face. "I know him too well for this." I thought.

The key for the roof lay in the dresser. I knew.

"Some other stuff might become useful when I have to live on the streets for a while." I thought. So I put pocket knife, some food, a pen, a noteblock, my passport and a map of England in my backpack. "What do I have to have more?" I remembered my mom had written she always fed the owl, so I had to find some owl food. "What does that look like?" I asked myself. "Where would my mom hide stuff that I'm not supposed to see? My mom apparently had some more secrets than I thought, so she would hide things more secure." I thought.

I looked underneath the couch. Nothing. Maybe underneath her bed? Nothing. I sighed. "Just think, Ellea." I told myself firmly. I picked a chair and looked on top of the cabinet in her bedroom. "Ha, found it!" I said with an even bigger smile on my face. "Well, I think."

It was a bag with strange brown blocks in it. It looked like dog food, but since we had no dog, it had to be for the owl.

"What now?" I asked myself. "The police could be here any minute." A small pause. "The police." I said as if a light bulb went on above my head. "They know my clothes. They can search for that and find me. So I need other clothes. But I have to be quick."

I changed my blue jeans, green sweater and brown jacket for a black jeans, yellow sweater and a black jacket. My shoes were black and looked normal. That would not stand out in the crowd.

When I was done, I grabbed my backpack, locked my house and ran upstairs to the roof. I opened the roof door with the key that I had found in the dresser.

What I saw was the skyline of London. It was beautiful. My parents always said I wasn't allowed to go to the roof, so I didn't go, but if I had known this, I would have broke that rule.

"Don't be distracted." I told myself firmly.

"Mom had writtin that I should call the owl. So let's do that." I wanted to do it, but I realised that someone could notice me shouting and maybe call the police. The owl was nowhere to see, so maybe I didn't need to shout. "You need to do it! No pretexts!" I told myself firmly. So I yelled: "ROWAN!, ROWAN!" But the owl didn't come. I started to lose hope, but yelled again: "ROWAN!" Nothing. No owl, no bird, nothing.

"ROWAN!" Still nothing. Maybe I did it wrong. But then, somewhere out of a cloud, came a little brown dot. "ROWAN!?" I yelled. The dot came closer and closer and became bigger and bigger until it flew past me and circled one time around me. It landed right infront of me. "It worked!" I shouted in relief.

The owl looked at me and I looked at him. "And what now?" I thought. A little silence. I looked awkwardly tot he owl.

"If you take place on my shoulder, than I give you food as we are downstairs and safe." I said as if I thought an owl would understand me. But what Rowan did was strange. He did what I had said and took place on my shoulder. "You are so awesome." I told the owl while petting him over his head.

I walked to the roof door, with Rowan on my shoulder, and locked it. I ran downstairs, as silently and as fastly as I could. Rowan didn't really like the fast movements I made, so he flew out of a window in the staircase and flew downstairs. I was so concentrated I didn't even noticed.

When I passed Ms. Oleary's appartment, she came outside. "Why all that... Ellea? Is that you? Why are you not... " "Hey! Please don't call the police!" I yelled back upstairs. I had already passed her before she opened the door, but she must have recognized the sound I made on the stairs.

When I was downstairs, I ran out of the building and saw Rowan sitting on the ground. I was surprised, cause I thought he still sat on my shoulder. "Come on! We have to go!" I said to him while running and waving he had to come.

I pulled up my hood and hoped no one would recognize me. Rowan flew ten meters above me while I was running through streets.

When I was at least ten streets away from my home, I stopped running. I was exhausted. I had laid my hands on my knees and had bowed my back to get some energy when I saw two police cars driving through the street. Both had their sirens on.

"They are for me" I thought when I walked further.

"I need a place to sleep." I thought. It was already getting dark, I was tired and Rowan wanted food. Me to, actually.

I walked in a street full of big houses and decided to sleep in someones backyard.

I looked at all the houses, they all had driveways. There were two houses with an empty driveway and no lights on in the house. Good for me, cause that ment the residents were not at home.

When I walked over the driveway of one of the houses, I saw the fence that separated the driveway and the backyard. The fence was approximately 2 meters high, but I could climb over it with some effort. And that was what I did.

I was right. I could climb over the fence, but it was a lot more effort than I had thought.

There was a shed in the right corner of the backyard and to my surprise, it was open.

Rowan landed on my shoulder when I looked inside the shed. Shovels, rakes, a wheelbarrow, a cloth for picknicks, chairs and some other stuff.

I walked inside with Rowan on my shoulder. I picked one of the chairs and seated myself on it. Rowan jumped from my shoulder, on my lap and looked at me.

"Yeah, you have deserved your food, Rowan." I said to the owl when I picked up my backpack wich I had put on the ground.

I got his food out and two apples for me. I fed him while I ate my apples. Rowan ate greatfully and made no other sounds than chewing.

"You are a good owl." I said to Rowan when we both had eaten our food. I petted the feathers on his head. He liked it. His feathers felt so soft. A small smile appeared on my face.

I picked up the picknick cloth to use it as a blanket. Rowan found a spot to sleep on a beam. I knew that owls are normally asleep during the day and awake during the night, so I wondered why Rowan was different. "Maybe Rowan is magical." I thought. I thought about it until I was asleep.

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I woke up by the sunlight that shone through the window of the shed.

My body still wanted to get some sleep, but my head said that I had to get up. It was dangerous to stay long on one place.

While I still sat in the chair, I was thinking about what I had to do today. "I must write a letter to Hogwarts and travel to Spinner's End. Let's do the letter first. Than Rowan has enough time to deliver it." I thought.

I got out of the chair, got my backpack, wich I had placed besides the chair, and got the pen and the noteblock out. It had apparently made some noise, cause Rowan awoke. He fluttered his wings and opened his gorgeous yellow eyes.

"I'm sorry for waking you up." I said regretfully to Rowan. Rowan just looked out of the window and stayed seated on the beam.

I seated myself on the chair again and put the cloth back over my legs. With the pen in my hand, I wondered what to write. After a few moments I got it and wrote:

_Dear headmaster of Hogwarts,_

_My name is Ellea and to be straight, I am the daughter of Severus Snape. I never knew he is my biological father. I found this out just a few days ago._

_My parents have passed away last week. I found out that my mom has left me a letter with a lot of information about me._

_The letter included things about the Magical World, Hogwarts, magic and that I am a witch. I grow up in the Muggle World and I have never known about all these things, so it was a bit of a shock. But what was even a bigger shock is that she wrote me that the man of whom I had always thought to be my father, actually is not my father. She wrote me that a man called: Severus snape is my biological father._

_She so wrote me he doesn't know of my existence and that she had written him a lot of letters to tell him about me. But she got them al back, unopened._

_She wrote me he had the ambition to become the potionsmaster at Hogwarts. I write this letter, because I want to know if he is right now. I am searching for him and this could be a good start. If he doesn't work at Hogwarts, do you know him? Or maybe people who know him?_

_She wrote me that as far as she knew, he lives at Spinner's End in Cokeworth. I am now on my way tot hat town._

_Please write me a letter back as soon as you can._

_Kind regards,_

_Ellea_

I wanted to put the letter in an envelope, but remembered I hadn't brought one along with me.

"What if I convolve the letter and give it to Rowan? Would work the same right?" I thought and looked at Rowan. He was still sitting on the beam and looking out of the window.

I convolved the letter and tight a string, wich I had found in the shed, around the convolved letter.

Then, I wrote 'Hogwarts, headmaster' on the back of the convolved letter.

I looked at Rowan and called him. He looked at me. "Could you come down? I have a letter you need to deliver." I told him while I opened the door of the shed. Rowan just looked at me and didn't move, so I seated myself again and thought about what I had to do to get Rowan to work.

Rowan came down a moment later and landed on my lap. He looked at me. "It needs to go to Hogwarts, to the headmaster. Can you do that?" I asked. I laid the letter on the ground and we both looked at it. Rowan just for a moment, cause he jumped of my legs, grabbed the letter and flew out of the shed.

"Wow, he is good." I thought. "If he delivers the letter." I thought right after. "He is and owl after all, so don't expect to much."

"So, Rowan is gone. Maybe a good time for me to go too." I thought while throwing the cloth off of me and standing up. I grabbed my backpack, closed the shed, climbed over the fence again and was back on the empty driveway.

When I looked around, I saw no one in the street. Good. I started walking until I reached a street full of shops. Between two shops, I saw an alley. It was dark, smelled very bad and pools of a aqueous substances were all over the place. I hoped they were water.

No one would notice me there, so I walked into the alley. There was a stone wall on the end of the alley. I took place in the right corner and leaned with my back against the wall.

I grabbed the map of England out of my backpack. I searched for Cokeworth and found it after some minutes.

"I'm in London" I said out loud, while pointing at London on the map. "And Cokeworth is there." I said, while pointing at Cokeworth on the map.

Cokeworth wasn't that far away. It was a town in The Midlands and probably had it's own trainstation. "Maybe a few hours by train or so" I thought. "Traveling by train would be nice, but is it safe? People can recognize me. I'm probably on the news as: 'The Missing Orphan' or something like that." I thought tensed. "But walking would take days and than there's also the possibility that someone will recognize me." I shighed. "This is so hard. So many dangers, so many stress!" I leaned my head to the wall. "I will take the train. I have to take the risk."

**Autor's Note:**

**Hey reader!**

**Thanks for all the reviews already.**

**I know it takes some time before Ellea and Snape meet, but next chapter they see each other for the first time. They meet in chapter 9.**

**I came up with an idea: I can write chapter 9 in both perspectives (Ellea's and Snape's). Interested in this? If people are, I will write it. Leave your thoughts in the comments.**

**See you next week!**


	8. On the rail

I went to King's Cross Station. It was very fussed. Lots and lots of people. People in nice suits, people with beards, people without beards, people with long hair and so on. They were all different, but had one thing in common: they wanted to leave London, just like me.

Why did I take the most crowded train station of England? Because my dad had always said that the best place to hide your things is in peoples sight. Cause that's where no one looks. Cause nobody expects it. But but taking some extra measures couldn't do something wrong. I pulled the hood of my sweater a little more over my face.

I walked infont of the station and saw the beautiful building. While I did so, I felt something gazing at me. Was someone watching at me? Did that person know who I was? Or was I just imagining it? I had been so stressed, I even was at the moment, so I thought it was just a strange feeling I made up.

I couldn't leave it and looked around to see who was watching me, but I couldn't notice a person who did. Everyone was too busy with their own things.

I looked further and saw a cat approximately 10 meters away from me, sitting on the ground and looking at me. It was nicely grey one with black stripes. I had never seen a cat like that. I gazed at it. The cat just turned around and walked away.

"You see? No one. Only a cat." I told myself. "Nothing to worry about."

I walked towards the ticket booth to get my ticket to Cokeworth.

"One ticket to Cokeworth please." I said with the hood still over my face. The woman behind the window wasn't really caring about who she sold the tickets to and didn't even look at me. Her blond, long hair hung nicely besides her full of make-uped face. Her lips were shiny red and a lot of man would love to take her on a date for sure and kiss those lips. Mom had always told me that you can put as many make-up on your face as you want, but if your hart isn't good, you're still ugly.

"Cokeworth..." she said while looking into a book. "Round trip?" she asked. "No." I simply said. "That's twenty pounds." she said now looking at me. I got twenty pounds out of my backpack and laid it infront if her.

The woman grabbed it with one hand and wiped some long blond hairs out of her face. The gum in her mouth made no sound, but her loud chewing did. It annoyed me.

The woman went on with reading another book. The title was: 'The boy of the other side'. I had read it. It was an exciting thriller.

"Ughm." I coughed. She looked at me. "What do you want, hood!? I'm reading! I would go to your platform if I were you! Your train leaves in ten minutes!" The woman was in her twentys, but sounded like a fifty year old. I didn't like her arrogant tone at all. Her hart wasn't good for sure.

"That's why I'm still here. Which platform?" I asked politely. It was hard to stay polite to her, but she had the information I needed, so I had to.

She sighed and looked in her other book. "Platform seven." she said with a lack of emotion. "It's about a four hour travel." She looked at me again. "Something else, hood?" She asked with a mean smile on her face. "No" I said. She picked up her thriller again.

"You know how that book ends?" I asked. "No, but I don't want to..." I interrupted her with: "Olivia and Nick find out they are brother and sister, Mark and Mandy fall in love and oh, yeah, Tim dies." The woman looked at me with a look of disgust. "Have a nice day." I said with a smile on my face and turned around.

When I walked away I could only hear: "you filthy, little..." Her sentence was interrupted by the sound of braking of a train.

Platform seven wasn't far away, but I ran. I had lost some time by talking to the rude woman.

When I was running, I saw a man with a newspaper. On the front page stood: 'Missing Orphan' with a photo of me. "Who could that missing orphan be? Come and get me now. I'm here." I thought sarcasticly and grinned.

When I had reached the platform, the train had already arrived.

I jumped into the train and found a place next to a window.

My window looked out over many people who still needed to get into the train and had trouble with lifting their luggage into the train. "Would there exist a magical solution for that?" Is asked my mind. "Sure, why not?" I answered it.

The train left two minutes later. Some people outside the train were waving at the train. As I passed them, I saw a nicely dressed woman with a hat and two children. A boy and a girl. The boy in a brown trousers and the girl in a grey skirt. They were still waving at the train when I had passed them. They looked sad. Probably, their dad was leaving. Maybe on a business trip or vacation with some friends, but he would presumably come back. He would… Mine went to a clothing store with my mom and had never returned. "But what do those kids know of loss." I thought.

When I looked out of the window again, I saw houses, restaurants and shops. We were still in London.

I was still looking out of the window when I heard: "Can I sit here?" I turned my head and saw an old man in a long grey coat. It looked expensive. He wore a black pants and black shiny shoes. His grey hat matched with his grey hair. He must have been in his sixties.

Even though his cloths made him seem impending, his smile said differently.

"Yes, sure." I had replied before I knew what I had done. "He can recognize you! You aren't really smart for a apparent witch you stupid cow!" I thought angrily and pulled the hood further over my face.

The man had seen me do so, cause he said: "Oh, come on. I'm sure you are a beautiful girl. You don't have to hide yourself." He took the chair next to me. "I am Howard." He said with a smile. "And you are?"

I had to come up with a different name, so I said: "I am Nina."

"Nina..." Howard said. "That's a beautiful name." "Thank you." I simply said.

"Could you take off your hood?" He asked. "A conversation is more comfortable if you can see the face of the other person." He stated nicely. Howard was trying to be nice, but he made me nervous.

"I don't want a converstation." I stated. It kind of hurted to be so rude to a nice, old man, but I really didn't want to talk at the moment.

The train went slower. It was going to stop. It wasn't Cokeworth station, but I said abrupt: "I need to go. This is my station." Howard nodded.

When I got out of my chair and passed Howard, he grabbed my hood and pulled in down. "See that's not that..." He stopped talking. He saw my face. "You are..." He stammered. "Nina" I said, trying to save my cover, but it was to late for that.

"No, you are not. You are that missing orphan." He said. "I should go to the police if I were you. It's better, believe me." He said nicely.

"You should always hear a story from two sides." I said, while running out of the train.

Howard ran after me and shouted as he reached the platform: "That's that missing orphan! Stop her!"

"And, gone is my cover." I thought while running to the exit.

Two police officers came out of a door in the big hallway of the trainstation. They saw me running and came after me.

"Can this day get worse!" I thought, while still running for my life.

I looked at signs above my head. 'Exit' I saw on one of them. It pointed to the right. "Just around the corner!" I thought. "I'm almost there!"

I ran around the corner and saw the exit. It was a glass wall with one door in the middle. "Almost there!" It thought happily and tensed at the same time.

I ran across many people and everyone looked at me. When I looked behind, I saw the cops, still running after me.

When I looked back infront of me, I saw a big group of men next to a small dark alley. I couldn't stop running anymore and bumped into the men and fell on the ground. I got back up quickly, but when I did a hand grabbed my upperarm firmly and pulled me into the alley.

I was so confused that I didn't make a sound.

The hand pulled me closer and back up my feet. Another hand grabbed my other upperarm. My face was close to a chest. The chest was covered with black cothing.

When I wanted to look at the person's face, it felt like I was pushed through a small tube. It hurted, but I couldn't scream. The firm hands didn't let go of my arms while I felt so terrible and I couldn't even try to get out of it.

**Author's note:**

**Hey reader!**

**I asked you a question last week. Next chapter Ellea and Snape will really meet. Would you also like that chapter from Snape's perspective? No one has reacted on that question so far, so I don't think you want it, but the question is still open. Leave in a review if you want it or not. If no one leaves a review about it, I see it as: no one wants it. Than I don't start writing it and we go on with the story from only Ellea's perspective.**

**If you want the next chapter from Snape's perspective too, would you like more chapters from Snape's perspective?**

**See you next week!**


	9. The man in black

In a matter of seconds, I stood back on the ground, but it felt like my legs couldn't handle the weight of my body anymore.

The muscles in my legs lost their strength and I was going to fall on my knees. The firm grip on my right arm let go and I fell into the right arm of the person who hold me.

The person put his left hand on my back and held my tight. As I hung on his arm, I felt so sick, so dizzy, so bad. I puked and the person said in an emotionless male voice: "that's normal for a first time." I wanted to ask what he ment, but I puked again.

I breathed heavily. The dizzy feeling was, for most part, gone and I felt better.

I placed my feet straight on the ground and got out of the man's arms. My back was still bowed, cause I still felt like I needed to vomit.

"Thanks for holding me." I said with a sick voice, while looking at the ground. "You're welcome." The voice responded with the same emotionless voice.

I was still looking, still bowed, at the ground, at the grass. "Grass?" I thought. "What is this!? Where am I!?" When I looked a bit to the right, I saw that the man still stood besides me. I could see his black shoes and a bit of his black trousers and his black cape. "Who wears capes?" I asked myself. "What it going on!?"

I straightened my back and looked in the distance. What I saw surprised me. I saw meadows with cows, grass and trees. "What!?" I thought confused. I frowned and completely forgot the man besides me.

My mouth fell open. "How can this happen?" I asked open-eyed. "Apparation." The man replied. "We apparated." He said after a small pause.

"What?" I asked. It felt like I got out of some trance I had been in. I turned to the man. He was pale, paler than me and had a bit of a hooked nose. He had black hair like mine, but his came to his shoulder and mine was longer. His dark eyes seemed to look right through me, but I hoped he couldn't. What could that man do more? Teleporting apperently, so more wouldn't surprise me.

I examined the man a bit more. He looked like someone I had seen before. And on that moment I froze. Could he be…

We just stared at each other for a moment, until we were interupted by a deep, friendly voice. "Ellea I suppose?" Another man, I hadn't noticed before, asked. I turned around to look at him.

He looked nice with that smile on his face, but his long hair and long beard- that he could have put underneath his belt if he wanted- made him look strange. He wore something that looked like a dress and a srange small hat in the same colour as his 'dress', blue. He aslo wore a long, brown coat wich completely misfitted his blue 'dress'.

"Yes?" I said interrogatively. "My name is professor Albus Dumbledore. I am the headmaster of Hogwarts and that man over there is… well he can tell that himself." He gestured with his hand to the other man who still stood besides me. The man in wich arms I had just hang. The man of whom I presumed to be Severus Snape. The man of whom I presumed to be my biological father.

The man looked at me again and said tensed: " I am Severus Snape."

My eyes widened. The man really was him. I examined him better. I could see the similarities between us, more than I had with my dad Thomas. The black hair. The dark eyes. The pale skin. I really was his daughter. Snape's daughter.

"Really?" I asked unbelievingly while looking right into his dark eyes. I had already expected him to be Severus Snape, but it still came as a shock.

The man, who had just introduced himself, didn't respond. I looked back at the ground. "But… w-w- why… how… I just…"

I just couldn't find the right words to say and he just looked at me with a face wich didn't want to show emotion, but I could see a bit of sorry in his face. Or did I wanted to see that?

"I think we can better talk somewhere else." The man, who had just introduced himself as Dumbeldore, said nicely.

"Are we going to, how do you call that, apparate again?" I asked Dumbledore with a overtone of 'I don't want'.

"No, we are not" Dumbledore said with a small grin. "We are going to walk if you don't mind."

"Oh, I don't mind." I said a bit too relieved.

Dumbledore lauged and I laughed with him, but very uneasily.

I took a quick look at Severus. I saw he didn't laugh. He just looked at me with a face full of disbelief, even though he wanted to keep it straight. It felt umcomfortable to keep staring at him, so I quickly returned to look at Dumbledore.

He had stopped laughing and gestured me to come with him. I didn't look at Severus and walked over to Dumbledore. When I had nearly reached him, he started walking. I walked besides him. Severus followed us on a meter distance.

We didn't talk for minutes as we walked over the road through the meadows. On both sides of the road were trees and I was occupying myself with looking at the landscape.

The silence was interupted by Dumbledore, who said: "you must have a lot of questions don't you?" He looked at me with a gently smile. His smile made me feel more confortable.

"I do, sir." I said honestly. He smiled again. "Your parents raised you well. You have good manners." He stated. "Thank you, sir" I replied. I couldn't help it, but I looked at Severus who walked behind us. He looked at me with a firm look, but I thought that was just fake and that he felt very uncomfortable. I could have been wrong, cause reading his body language wasn't the easiest job.

I didn't know why, but his firm look made me feel uneasy. That feeling suppresed my desire to ask all of my questions.

"I got your letter." Dumbledore said a moment later. I looked surprised, Dumbledore did aswell. "Why so surprised?" He asked gently. "I have never sent a letter per owl before, so I didn't know if Rowan would find his way to Hogwarts." I repied. "Rowan?" He asked. "Oh, that's the name of my owl. I wonder where he is." "He is at the owlery at Hogwarts. Rowan looked undernourished and was tired of the long trip. He is in safe hands. Hagrid is taking care of him." Dumbledore explained. "Who is Hagrid?" I asked curiously. "He is the man who takes care of chores that have to be done around Hogwarts. He is very good with animals and knows a lot about them."

It was good to know that Rowan was in good hands. He had done a good job and deserved some rest.

There was a small pause in our conversation. I looked at my surroundings again and remembered there was a man walking behind us. I looked over my shoulder at the man who had introduced himself as Severus Snape. He looked back with his dark eyes. His firm face and emotionless look. I had pulled him out of his reverie, I noticed. I also noticed a sense of surprise. Probably because I turned around to look at him. It clearly made him feel a bit uncomfortable. I turned back.

Dumbledore broke it with saying: "after I got your letter, I informed Severus about the letter." Dumbledore had stopped talking, but I wanted to know more, so I asked: "and then?" "You can ask Severus." He said gently. "I have to go now. I am sorry, but I have very important things to do in the Magical World. I hope you don't mind." He said. "No sir, it was nice to meet you." I said gently. "Yes it was Ellea." He said while looking at me.

He took two steps away from me and said: "goodbye to you two." Severus nodded and I just looked at Dumbledore and wondered what ge was going to do.

Dumbledore transformed into a small mess of moving blue that flew into the air and in a matter of seconds, the mess disappeared.

"So that's what we just did." I thought with raised eyebrows. "Cool. How would it work?" I asked myself.

"Shall we go?" Severus asked uneasily a moment after the old man had disappeared. He tried to hide it, but I noticed it. I realised that I had been looking at the place where Dumbledore had stood the whole time he had been gone.

"Uh, yeah." I replied. He got me out of my second trance of the day.

We walked on the road and both looked at the scenery. It looked beautiful in the sunlight, but I was soo tensed, I couldn't enjoy it. I had soo many questions, but I felt soo strange. Something retained me from asking them.

"Where are we?" I asked to break the silence and hoped that I would create a conversation.

"We are in Cokeworth." He simply replied. "And where are we going to?" "We are going to my house. It's close to the end of this road."

I saw some houses on the end of the road. They all looked identical and far away. We still had to walk for at least ten minutes, I estimated.

The conversation went very uneasily up to this point, but there was at least a conversation. I was avoiding the real questions for now- to start a conversation- , but I wanted to ask them.

"Could you complete the story wich Dumbledore had started?" I asked without looking at him.

He sighed. It wasn't a reluctant sigh, but one of inner pain. "Why inner pain?" I asked myself. "Does he feel bad about never seeing me?"

He stared into the distance and started talking. "After Dumbledore had received your letter, he gave it to me. I read it and…" He took a pause and looked at the ground. "You should know that I have never known about you. Otherwise, I think that things would have gone differently." He said with the same emotionless voice, but still I noticed his regret.

"You have never read the letters of my mom did you?" I asked. "No." He replied. "I thought that the letters contained other information. It was better for me and Lynn… your mom, to split up." he explained.

"Did you really love her, my mom?" I asked. "On that moment, I did. But afterwards, not anymore." He replied.

I could notice that he had effort with telling me everything. He probably wasn't the type that could easily express feelings.

He stopted walking and turned to me. We stood infront each other and he looked right into my eyes.

"You should just know that I have never known about you. I could have, but I was stupid. You can live with me if you want, cause you are my daughter after all, I think, we need to test that, but I can also imagne if you don't, cause what I did to your mom was just wrong. So, do you want to?"

I was surprised by his offer. He clearly didn't look like the type of man to let anybody besides himself sleep in his home.

"Testing?" I thought. "Of cours he wants to know it for sure."

"Do you really want it? Cause I can imagne that a girl, who says to be your daughter, that appears soo suddenly can feel a bit unconfortable."

"I am good with it. Don't worry." A smile on appeared on his face and he said: "you are soo much like your mother. I am soo sorry for you." He said, his voice full of sympathy. A sad frown had appeared on his face. "I am sorry for your loss to." I said with a sad frown. He gave me a sad smile in return.

He placed his right hand on my left upperarm and shuffled his hand over my arm with the intention to console me, but it didn't work. It only made me sadder. Tears filled my eyes and my legs got weaker. I couldn't stop myself from bursting out in tears. This was the first time, since my parents had died, that I had to cry. Maybe because I now felt safe to cry or just because I needed to let my feelings about their terrible death out for once.

I bowed my neck, put my hands infront if my eyes and was crying. After a few seconds, I could feel a pair of arms around me. I could feel that he first felt uncomfortable about hugging me,- while he hugged me- but after a moment he placed his hand on the back of my head and pushed my head closer to his chest.

After a moment, he pulled himself back and put his hands on my shoulders. "Better now?" he asked monotonously, even though he tried to stay friendly. I wiped some tears away and said: "Yeah, I feel better now. Thanks" I smiled at him. I sensed he wasn't a man who gave a lot of hugs and was thankful he had given me one when I needed it the most.

He looked at me with his dark eyes full of compassion and I looked at him with my eyes still full of tears.

"I'm sorry." I said regretfully. He looked confused. "Why are you sorry?" "For the crying infront of you." I sobbed. He slightly smiled. "I could have known. You are too good for people, you know. You have that from your mom." he said with a sad smile. "Come, we are going home." He said afterwards.

He put his arm around me and we walked further.

**Autors'Note:**

**Hey reader!**

**This chapter could also be read from Snape's point of view. You can find this in a new story on my account.**

**More chapters from Snape's perspective will follow. Not every week, but sometimes when important things happen in the story.**

**When I upload a chapter from Ellea's and Snape's perspective, don't expect a new chapter from Ellea's and/or Snape's perspective the week after. The chapters from Snape's point of view will be bigger than the ones from Ellea, cause I won't post a chapter from Snape's perspective every week. I need time to write and edit the story and doing Snape's perspective besides the story from Ellea's perspective takes a lot of time. I hope you respect this.**

**Keep checking the The Magical Child story on my account to know how the story continues.**

**So, no chapter(s) next week. The next chapter from Ellea's point of view will be posted the week after next week.**

**See you later!**


	10. Magic at Spinner's End

The houses seemed to become bigger and bigger as we came closer. When we walked into the district, I saw all the identical houses. I looked across the road at the rows and rows of dilapidated brick houses.

We walked to the left, went around a corner and I already knew that if I ever had to leave that place on my own, I could never leave. The place looked like a maze. Everything looked exactly the same.

After a few minutes of walking through the neighborhood, Severus stopped in front of one of the houses. An old house with a dark door. The door had two windows, but those were dark to. "Why dark windows? You can't look through them." I thought, but didn't ask.

The rest of the house seemed old. The window frames were worn outworn and the shutters were never painted or at least not in decades. The curtains were closed what made the house seem vacant.

Severus grabbed a key out of one of the pockets of his pants and opened the door.

The door let to an old and tiny looking livingroom. The walls were covered in books. A shaky coffee table, an old armchair, a grey fireplace, a large clock that stood in the corner and an effete sofa filled the room. On the ceilling hang a candle-filled lamp. "Strange. A candle-filled lamp?" I thought. "Why candles? Why no lamps on electricity?" I thought it would be better to ask him that later on.

Severus gestured me to get in, so I did. The place was dark and felt a bit cold. Being here chilled me. Severus followed me and closed the door. I was standing in the middle of the living room and looked at all of his books. He passed me and stopped in front of the kitchen door.

"Would you like something to eat? he asked politely with his monotonous voice. I turned around and saw him standing there. He felt so uncomfortable, I couls see. The door, he was standing in front of, was open and I could see the kitchen counter and a window behind him.

I looked at the clock. It was almost half past twelve. "Yes, please." I repied. "Do you like chicken sandwiches?" he asked with the same emotionless voice. "Yes, I do." I answered. "Good." he said before walking into the kitchen.

Even though he left the kitchen door open, I was alone in the living room. I walked around and looked at the furniture. It certainly needed an upgrade.

When I looked at the walls full of books, I saw books with title's as: 'The Art of Potions and The Magic Of The Dark Arts'. It sounded interesting and chilling at the same time. I wanted to read it, but also not. The looked dangerous. I decided to ask Severus about the books later.

I turned away from the bookshelves and stood next to the coffee table. On it, lay a newspaper, but not a normal one. The pictures seemed to... move. A group of men and women moved. They moved! The looked at each other and smiled, then they turned their heads and smiled even more.

I had stared at the picture for a moment before I came closer to it. My head hung above the newspaper and I saw people really... moving. "That can't be true." I thought while rubbing my eyes with my hands. "I am just tired if today." I whispered out loud.

However, when I was done rubbing, I still saw the pictures moving. I had the desire to touch it, but I didn't know what would happen if I did, so I let the thought go.

On that moment, Severus came back in. "Lunch is ready." he said as he stood in the doorpost. "Uh, yeah." I responded as I looked up from the newspaper. "Are you interested in things that happen in the Wizarding World?" he asked while I walked towards him. "Uh, I would love to know everything about it." I stated. He showed a surprised look. "I conclude out of that answer that you know nothing about it, am I right?" he asked. "Well, not really much." I repied. He looked a bit confused and understanding at the same time at that.

We walked to a two person table in the kitchen. I saw two plates with chicken sandwiches. They looked delicious. Two glasses of milk stood on the table too. I liked milk and appreciated the glass.

"Please sit down." Severus said emotionless, what made his request sound threatening. I did what he had said and took the chair closed to the door to the living room. He took the other chair in front of mine.

When he sat, he said: " I supposed you like milk." "I do, thank you." I replied. "Good." he said with his monotone voice. His voice sounded soo malicious as he spoke, but I hoped he didn't mean it that way.

We both sat at the table and looked at anything except the food and each other, until Severus asked: "where are you waiting for? Food is to be eaten, you know." he said minatorily. "I am sorry" I said quickly and grabbed a sandwich and started eating. He had made me feel comfortable with the hug earlier today, but that was all gone now.

Severus started eating too. After he did, it was silent for a couple of minutes. Only the sounds of eating and feelings of discomfort on both sides filled the room.

Severus broke the silence with: "I have heard about your existence yesterday. That was a stressing moment. Everything went quick." he said while looking at his plate, hands folded on the table. "And now I am here with you." He looked at me. His eyes were impending. I hoped he ment it right, even though I had my doubts.

"You are confused, aren't you?" I asked him. "Yes, you could say that." He replied surprised. I knew how must feel. I felt the same. I could imagne it must be weird for him to discover he has a daughter he had never known about.

"I think it just needs some time. We, need some time." I said confidently. "You are right. That's also what I think and that's the reason why I am not going back to Hogwarts for the rest of the year." he said before he took a sip of his milk. "For how long is that?" I asked curiously. "Two months." he replied. "I think that's enough time to get to know each other." he added after a small pause. Another pause occured. "If you are my daughter of cours." he said seriously. I nodded in disappointment. However, I could understand why he doubted the whole situation.

"You just said that you wanted to know everything about the Wizarding World. So, I suppose your mom hasn't told you?" he asked to start a new and better conversation. "Only what she has written in the letter." I repied. He nodded. "What did it say?" he tried to ask nicely, but it sounded more like a demand. "I didn't read it." he said a bit irritated. "Almost nothing." I said. "You are not really clear, Ellea." he said more irritated. "I don't like those kind of answers." he said a bit angrily. I gave him a fierce look in return and none of us said something for a while. Severus seemed to be calmed down a bit and I was too.

"Can I read it?" he asked a moment later. I looked interrogatively and raised my eyebrows. "The letter." he added a bit irritated again. He had probalbly seen the irritated frown on my face, cause he said: "Just to know what you already know about the Wizarding World, cause I don't get it from you!" he responded louder. "I can be straight about that." I said with the same monotonous voice as his. "You are not getting it." "What kind of information does it contain that I may not know!?" he almost shouted. "Some privately information between me and my mom!" I nearly shouted as well. Anger rushed through my body and then... KLATS! We both jumped out of our chairs and covered our eyes. When we looked again, I saw that my glass of milk had exploded. On the table laid pooles of milk and broken glass.

We both stared at the fragments of what had been my glass of milk. "So you were a bit stressed, huh?" he asked monotonously. My eyes turned swiftly to him and looked at him with an asking frown. He looked confused. "You were, right? You were stressed." he asked with a voice wich didn't know if it wanted to be irritated or confused. "Uh, yeah I was." I said with hope he wouldn't relate the stress and the expoded glass if milk.

"So you made the glass explode?" he asked ominously and monotonously, but I hoped he didn't mean it that way. "I think you have talent, Ellea." he said happily and still a bit monotonously. "For what?" I asked curiously. He looked confused. "For magic of cours!" he replied confused. "Uh, okay." I sais with an uncomfortable laugh, cause I didn't know how to react. "Magic? Me?" I added as the realisation hit me. Now, Severus looked even more confused than he had been before and asked: "your mom didn't tell you much about magic, did she?" "No, not much." I said with his emotionless voice.

"Well let's first clean the place." he said while he got a stick out of his pocket. He pointed it at the mess and said- while making a small hand movement- : "scourgify" and the mess was gone. He put his stick- that was apparently a wand or something- back in his pocket and went back to the chair, to sit on it, and I did the same with my head full of confusion and questions. When I wanted to ask them, he said with an almost normal voice again: "well, I respect that your letter is private."

His respect surprised me. "But just give normal answers in the future, okay?" It wasn't really a question. "Okay." I simply said. "Good." he responded with a normal voice again. He took a small pause before he asked: "So, what do you already know about the Wizarding World?" His voice was a bit too calm. It felt thundery, but I stayed relaxed. "I know that a school called 'Hogwarts' exists and that it is a school for magical kids." I told him calmly. He nodded while he ate another sandwich.

"I know what a squib is and that my mom is one or was one." He looked up from his sandwich and looked at me. He nodded again.

"I know that wizards have broomsticks on wich they can fly." I said a bit too enthusiasticly. Severus didn't smile. "Yes we do. I have one too. Nearly every witch and wizard, I think." he responded. "Really?" I asked with fake interest, cause I already knew. It stood in my mom's letter.

"Really." Severus replied a bit irritated. In his opinion, my 'really' was a stupid question, I noticed, and he was right, it was a stupid question. "You might see it later if you want." he remarked. I supposed that flying on broomsticks was very normal in the Wizarding World and that that was why he remained so calmly. I would laugh if someone would do excited about something normal. He didn't.

"I would really like that." I responded with a smile. "Well, I just saw that you have magical abilities, so you could learn to fly on it later in your life." he said while staring at me. My face blanked and it felt like all my emotions had left my body. I had no idea how to react. He saw that, cause he ensured me with: "there is nothing to be afraid of." "That would be cool, learning how to fly." I responded, but the thought about flying on a broomstick still didn't make me feel completely good.

"That must be one of the coolest parts of magic, isn't it?" I asked. He frowned. "That's a matter of opinion." he replied coldly. He clearly did not like it, or at least not as much as other wizards and witches.

"would you like to have a new glass of milk?" he asked. I smiled. "Yes, please." I expected him to stand up and get one, but instead he retrieved his stick out of his pocket, pointed it towards one of the kitchen cupboards underneath the counter, moved his wand to the right and the sound of an opening cupboard door filled the kitchen.

I was shocked from the sudden noise behind me and looked around. The door of the cupboard was indeed open. My eyes widened.

Severus made a new movement with the wand and a glass flew out of the cupboard. I followed the glass flying through the air with my eyes. It landed right infront of me.

With another hand movement, a bottle, wich stood on the kitchen counter, flew towards us and poured milk into the glass. The bottle landed besides the glass.

I had watched the happening with widened eyes and stared at the glass of milk.

Severus had noticed my shock, cause he said: "that's just some simple nonverbale wand magic." he remarked modestly. "You can do that too in a few years."

My eyebrows raised and I looked at the wand that was still in his hands. "That's nice." I remarked slowly while staring at his wand. "Is there more simple magic?" I asked curiously with a slight laugh. It was ment as a joke. He didn't get it.

"Yes, there is. You will learn it at Hogwarts when you are old enough." he told me. Now he just made my really curious. "But like what? Let things fly or..." I made that word long to hopefully get an answer, cause I had no idea what magic could do, besides what I had already experienced.

"Letting things fly is one of the things, yes." he repied. "You will also learn how to transform a match into a needle and many more things." he said. "Like making potions?" I asked. "Yes, but that's a different subject. I teach that." he said. "I got that." I said with a smile. He frowned. "I don't like those kind of 'smart' answers." he said strict with a minacious look on his face. "I am sorry" I said regretfully while looking at my last sandwich. "I ment it funny, you know." I added a bit awkwardly. "Cause my mom wrote it in her letter and I wrote to Hogwarts and I..." I looked up from my sandwich and right into his dark eyes. His face still showed austere. My words got softer each word I said and then I stopped talking.

"You are going to live in my house, for now, and that means there are curtain rules." he said dourly. I was perplexed, but it seemed pretty expected.

He expected a response, but I didn't speak, so he continued. "First of all, never give half answers. If I ask you something than I expected a full answer." I nodded. "Rule number two, don't try to act smart. You are a kid and it irritates me when kids to that." I nodded again. That seemed to please him. "And the third and last rule for now, don't go to the basememt without me. I make potions and keep ingredients there. Those things can be very dangerous if you don't know how to use them." I nodded again and asked: "may I see it?" "My basement?" he asked surprised. "Yes, your basement." I said. He nodded and considered my request. "After you have finished your sandwich and milk." I nodded. "I think it will be impressive." I remarked. "We will see." he responded seriously.

I had no idea where the basement could be, cause I hadn't seen another door- besides the kitchen door- when I had come in. "Maybe he will let a door appear out of nowhere. That would be cool." I thought while I ate my last sandwich.

When I was done, I looked at the clock on the wall. It was half past two. Then I looked at Severus. He seemed pleased. "Well, the basement." he said while he stood up. "Follow me."

**Author's Note:**

**Hey readers!**

**Thanks to all the people who leave reviews, to the people who follow this story and to the people who added this story to their favorites. A special thanks thanks to Mirrenias who left a review about the idea to translate my story into another language. I was so surprised. I have sent him a private message about it, cause I think translating my story into other languages would be cool, but I gave got my own ideas about this:**

**I don't want my story to be reposted by other people.**

**However, I really like your idea of translating it into multiple languages, so I came up with another idea. My idea is:**

**\- You translate the story (wich I have posted till so far) into the new language (you want).**

**\- You sent the translated chapters to me in a private message to my account.**

**\- I start a (new) story on my own account for the The Magical Daughter story, but than the translated one. A new story for each language.**

**\- I post the translated chapters in the (new) story's.**

**\- In the future, I will post new chapters. I always post my new chapters on Sundays. You translate the new chapter, every week after I have posted a new chapter, into the language (you want).**

**\- You send me the translated chapter in a private message to my account.**

**\- I post it in the (new) story's.**

**I will say in the Author's Note of the translated story's it's you who translated the story. I will give you all the credits for the translating. I will also praise you for translating the story in the English version.**

**I hope you like this idea. If you want to cooperate in this, please sent a private message to my account or leave a review.**

**Thank you for reading my story and hopefully I see you next week when I upload a new chapter.**


	11. Severus' potions basement

He walked back to the living room and stopped infront of a bookcase. I stood behind him and watched him carefully. Severus looked over his shoulder to look at me. His expression said nothing. Than he got his wand back out of his pocket. He touched several books- the ones in the case- with his wand. It looked like he used some kind if code to open the door, but nothing happened. I frowned and wondered what he was doing.

I still watched him and the bookcase carfully and after a few seconds, I heard noises coming from the bookcase. I startled and slowly moved backwards. The bookcase started to move and my eyes widened. The bookcase opened like a door and revealed a stairway behind it.

Severus looked over his shoulder again with a face of 'I keep an eye on you' and gestured me to follow him. He went down first, into the darkness. The ambiance of the place created shivers wich rolled down my spine.

Severus pointed his wand to somewhere in the darkness. As he did, lights in the basement went on. I raised my eyebrows and realised that it wasn't that scary anymore, but still, it was a basement of a man I had not known for long, a stranger to me. "Was this a right decision?" I asked myself, but refused to answer my mind.

We went down a bit more and we stood in the basement. Severus pointed his wand tot he bookcase-door. He waved his wand and the door closed.

I looked around the basement. The walls were grey and made of concrete, but by the light of candle-filled lamps they seemed a bit yellowish. The room was about four by six meters and was filled with wooden furniture.

On the right side of the room stood a big, brown and wooden table. A few books, a metal cauldron, spoons- made of diffrent kinds of wood and kinds of metal- and strange looking plants lay on top of it. The cauldron was placed above a small fire. Inside, was a purple looking substance, boiling. Green bubbles came out of the substance. I frowned and wondered what it was.

Next to the table stood a closet. The shelves were filled with cauldrons which were made out of all the kinds of metal a person could think of. They didn't look very big or small, so I supposed that they were a normal size for a cauldron. If there could be something as normal sizes for those things.

On one shelf stood a jar, containing spoons made of different kinds of metal and kinds of wood.

Next to the closet stood a big wooden clock. "Would potions have times in wich a person needs to make them? Just like cooking food?" I wondered. "I think so." I thought a moment later. "Why not. This is magic, everything is weird."

On the right side were two closets, same to the one on the left side. These closets contained jars of strange looking plants, bowls full of weird nuts and berries, boxes with shells and more stuff. "Those must be the ingredients." I tought.

"Well" Severus said. "This is the basement." I was still looking at the shelves full of peculiar stuff when he added: "I make my potions here." "What can those potions do?" I asked him. He raised his eyebrows and had clearly not expected that question, or a question at all. "Well, they can do various things." he replied, while walking over to a closet which stood next to the stairs. I hadn't seen the content in that one yet.

He got two small bottles from the upper shelf and one from a shelf underneath it. He walked to the table and placed them next to each other and gestured me to come.

I stood infront of the bottles and looked at all three of them. Severus, who stood next to me, said: "this one places the taker in a state of sleep that makes them seem like they are dead. It's called 'Draught of the Living Death." he explained, while he pointed at the left bottle. "That is the Draught of Peace." He pointed at the bottle in the middle. "It's a potion that relieves the anxiety of the taker." I nodded. "And that is an Antidote to Common Poisons. This potion reverses the effects of common poisons." He pointed at the right bottle. "These are just a few examples of potions." he said while looking at me.

"You all made those yourself?" I asked. "Yes, I did." he replied. "And this is magic?" I asked skeptically. "Yes." he said slowly, his voice full of suspicion. "Isn't it science?" I asked. "Science!?" he repeated, clearly dismayed. "Do you think this is science!?" he asked fiercely. "Well, yes." I said calmly, even though he scared me. "That's typically a muggle answer!" he stated. "Potions aren't science! It's a securely form of magic!" he nearly shouted.

"Well, there are things that can do the same thing without the use of magic." I responded calmly and emotionless like his normal voice. "Oh, really? Tell me please." he demanded irritated. "Well, your first potion let people sleep. Muggles do that with what's called: anesthesia. Your second potion takes anxiety away. Muggles can use specially created stuff for that too. And your third and last potion reverse the effect of common poisons. Muggles can use medicines for that. All of these things are created with science." I explained a bit irritated too, cause I got the impression he really disliked muggles. And my dad Thomas was a muggle, he wasn't bad, he only couldn't do magic and would that make him bad? My mother also couldn't do magic and that was the reason he had left her. Why wouldnt magical people and non-magical people have the same rights? "Severus is an…" I couldn't finish my thought, cause Severus went on.

"So muggles are innovative?" he asked irritated. "Yes they are!" I stated fiercely. "But do muggles have something that temporarily turns the drinker's head into a pumpkin?" he asked without expecting an answer. "A what?" I asked unbelievingly. "A pumpkin." he stated. "Uh, no, I don't think so." I said knowing that I had lost the discussion.

"But why would someone turn his head into a pumpkin?" I asked, clearly confused. Severus looked at me with raised eyebrows. "Well, some people are just strange." he replied. I let out a small laugh, because his answer was funny, but most of all, to let me tension of the discussion out of my body.

He walked to the bottles, picked them up and placed them back on the shelf. I walked to a closet with ingredients while he did. I saw the berries and other strange thinks closer now. My look fell on a bowl with what looked like horns. They were beautiful.

Severus came from behind and stopped next to me. "Are you looking at the unicorn horns?" he asked, looking at me. "Unicorn horns?" I asked unbelievingly and turned around to look at him. My widened eyes and rased eyebrows surprised him only a bit. He simply nodded.

"So they really exist." I wanted to keep that in my mind, but I had said it out loud. He gazed at me and said: "they live in forests in the Wizarding World." "How do you get their horns?" I asked. "Well, muggles keep cows for their milk, right?" I nodded. "We wizards keep unicorns for their horns." he explained, while looking at the horns. "Do you saw them off?" I asked him. "Yes." he simply replied. He must have seen the horrific look on my face, cause he said: "but they regrow. We wizards aren't monsters, you know." I sighed and smiled at him. He didn't smile back, he only gave me a serious look.

"I use them in some potions, but you think that's just science, so it's not interesting, so I think you don't want to touch it." he said defiantly. "I didn't say that it's not interesting." I responded quickly. My reaction created a playfull frown on his face, but it disapeared as quickly as it had come. "I just thought that it was equal to science." I said. I hoped that I was still allowed to touch the horns, cause I just felt a desire to touch them.

"It's all right." he said. "You may touch them if you apologize for acting like a smartass a moment ago. I told you that I didn't like that kind of behaviour." he said strictly while looking right into my eyes.

"I am sorry." I said regretfully while looking at the ground. "For what? And look at me when you say it." he demanded with the same strict intonation in his voice. "For acting like a smartass." I said still regretfully and now looking into his eyes. I had disappointed him already. I felt so bad.

He nodded and said: "it's all right." He reached out to the bowl of unicorn horns, grabbed one out and gave it to me.

It was beautiful. The horn was so white, so pure white. I couldn't find any deviations. The horn was curled, just as in all the fairytales. The lines of the curl were perfect, no deviations either. It just looked perfect. It felt very smooth- no bumps or whatever- and harsh. Just like I had imagned it when I was very young.

I was so impresed by the horn. It was just so perfect. "How can something be so perfect?" I asked Severus, who had looked at my hands, which held the horn, until he looked at my face. "Well, I think it's because unicorns are swift, powerfull and peaceful creatures." he replied slowly. "Unicorns grow their horns at around four years old. The horns are highly magical and can by used in a lot of potions." he added.

"Do you use this a lot?" I asked curiously, the horn still holding in my hand. "Well, yes. I use it pretty much." he replied, not expecting that question. "Do you remember Antidote to Common Poisons, the third potion that I have just showed you?" I nodded. "Well, I use it in that."

I gave him the horn back and looked while he put it back in the bowl. "Thanks." I said with a small smile when he had just put the horn back. I guess he hadn't expected that, cause he reacted with raised eyebrows for a moment, but swiftly turned his facial expression into a serious look and said with his normal emotionless voice: "you're welcome."

"I realy liked unicorns when I was younger." I said a bit shyly. "Realy? Than I think you will love this as well." He did a step to the right and reached for a jar. When he got it, he walked to the table and placed the jar on it. I followed him. The content of the jar looked silverish.

"This is unicorn hair. Well, hair of an adult unicorn." He looked away from the jar and I could see that he was thinking. "Wait a moment." he said while he walked back to the closet.

He got another jar from another shelf and placed it next to the other one on the table. The content of this one was pure gold.

"This is unicorn hair." He said while gesturing at both of the jars. "This is unicorn hair from young unicorns, until an age of two years old." He pointed at the jar with the golden content. "After two years they start to grow silver hair." He pointed to the jar with the silver content. "They are both highly magical and can both be used into potions, but the silver hair is more powerful and that's why it's used more often." he explained.

"Do you want to touch it?" he asked. "Yes, please." I said eagerly. He opened the jar with the golden unicorn hair.

I hung above the jar and looked at it. It was beautiful. I reached out to touch some hair while Severus looked at my hands. He looked pleased.

I grabbed a hand full of hair out of the jar and let it slide through my fingers. It felt so soft. It was just as perfect as the horns. No spot that wasn't as gold as another spot.

"Do you know that unicorns prefer a woman's touch and get nervous of men?" he asked with a nice voice, but with an undertone of 'I know you don't know'. "No I didn't." I said without looking at him. I was too fascinated by the hair. "Unicorns are more trusting when they are babies and don't mind men as much, but later they do." he added.

When I was done feeling the golden strands of hair, I put it back into the jar. Severus opened the second jar and I touched that as well. The hair slid through my fingers. It felt just as soft as the golden ones and it was just as perfect.

"Do you use more unicorn things?" I asked curiously. "Well, I don't, but people can use unicorn blood." "Why don't you use it?" I asked him curiously. Severus sighed. "Well, unicorn blood condemns the drinker to live a cursed life." he explained. "That's why I don't use it." "Wow, that isn't good." I stated. "How can such a peaceful creature have that kind of evil blood?" "I think it's because they are soo peaceful and innocent. A unicorn will never hurt someone, so hurting an unicorn would be cruel. So the unicorn kind of punishes bad people with that." he answered.

I put the silver hair back in the jar. Severus closed the jars and placed them back on the shelves where they belonged.

"So, do you still think science is better than magic?" he asked teasingly, still standing infront of the shelves full of ingredients. "I never said that!" I said loud with a smile on my face. He didn't smile back. However, I knew he ment it right.

"You are tough, you know, but you have talent for magic and maybe for potions too." he said as he walked towards me. "So, you kno wit isn't magic?" He showed a confused look. "You said 'magic and potions', so you see it as two separate things. So, if it isn't magic, than it's science." I responded with a grin. Severus frowned. "That's not what I ment." he stated. "Potions is…" "I know, I know." I interrupted him. "I was just joking." His face softened. "I don't like jokes." I nodded. " Good to know." I stated.

He looked at the clock in the basememt and said: "I think we should go back up. I am going to make supper. Do you like stew?" I nodded. "Good." he responded.

We walked up the stairs, Severus first. He opened the bookcase-door with a wave of his wand and we walked both back into the living room. He went back to the door after I was upstairs and waved with his wand to extinguish the candles downstairs. Then, he closed the bookcase-door with another wave of his wand and the room looked normal again.

"That was very cool." I said with a grin. "I am glad you liked it." he responded.

**Author's Note:**

**Hey reader!**

**Another chapter at Spinner's End. Her reaction on his work isn't what you had expected, is it? I think Snape had not expected that either when he showed her his basement.**

**How will she react on more magic? And how will Snape react on her findings? Read next weeks' chapter to find out.**

**See you next week!**


	12. Suppertime

"I think you should entertain yourself now. I'm going to cook supper." he said while he was walking to the kitchen.

I was alone in the living room. "What am I going to do?" I tought.

I looked around the room and saw the weird newspaper on the coffee table. suspicion filled my mind, my eyes narrowed. "I won't look at you, you strange... how do you call such a thing? A thing, yes. I won't look at you, you strange THING!" I snarled in my mind.

I walked towards a bookcase and looked at the books. 'Charming Charms' was the title of one of them. "That doesn't really sound like something for me." I thought. I remembered the two books which I had seen before and walked towards those books.

'The Art of Potions' and 'The Magic Of The Dark Arts'. I chose the second. It sounded more interesting and exciting.

I seated myself in the lenient armchair and started reading.

I read: _The Dark Arts, also known as Dark Magic, refers to any type of magic that is mainly used to cause harm to, exert control over, or even kill the victim._

That shocked me. "Why would Severus have a book like this? Why would he want to harm or even kill someone? Or would he use it to defend himself against wizards and/or witches who use it malignantly?"

I had soo much questions, but decided not to ask them. I didn't want to make Severus angry again and what if I discovered something that I shouldn't have known? He was very good at the magic that he had shown, so there was probably more he was skilled at. I decided to observe him a bit to see why he had intersts in those horrible things.

My curiosity overcame my morals and I read further.

I read: _The Dark Arts includes a lot of spells and actions ranging from the powerful Unforgivable Curses to brewing harmful or poisonous potions and breeding Dark creatures. Most of those actions are illegal or at least heavily discouraged in the Wizarding world. The three Unforgivable Curses are punishable by an automatic life sentence in Azkaban Prison when used on humans._

"Good to know" I thought while I flipped a page. "But what are the three Unforgivable Curses?"

I read further: _Practitioners of Dark Magic are referred to as Dark wizards or witches._

"Yeah, that's not what I was looking for." I thought irritated, while I flipped another page.

I was still flipping pages to find information about the three Unforgivable Curses when Severus came back into the living room. "Supper is ready." he stated nicely. I startled and looked with a shocked frown at him. Why? I had no idea. Probably because the title had sounded dangerously and I was still reading it.

On his face appeared an impending frown and he asked strictly: "What are you reading?" I got all the self-confidence that I possessed and replied: "The Magic Of The Dark Arts." His face showed a small shock, but also a bit of proud which I didn't understand.

"And? Is it interesting?" he asked. "Yes, it is, but I don't really get it." I replied honestly. "No wonder, the Dark Arts is not for a witch of your age." Severus explained. Him using the word 'witch' to indicate me sounded weird and nearly offensive to me, even though I knew I was.

"If it's a question with a quick answer than you can ask it now. Supper is waiting." he added. "Well, I don't know if it's a quick answer, cause I don't know the answer, but I don't think so." I said. He took place on the couch and said: "well, go ahead."

I pointed at the sentence in the book and read out loud: _the three Unforgivable Curses are punishable by an automatic life sentence in Azkaban Prison when used on humans._

I looked at Severus and asked curiously: "what are the three Unforgivable Curses?" He looked at bit shocked, but said with his normal monitone voice: " the three curses that are classified as Unforgivable are the Imperius Curse, the Cruciatus Curse, and the Killing Curse." "And what can those curses do?" I asked even more curiously. Severus sighed and had stared to the ground for a second before he looked at me, seriously.

"If the Imperius Curse is cast successfully, the curse places the victim completely under the caster's control, though a person with exceptional strength of will can resist it. However, that's not really common." Severus explained seriously. I nodded. "And the others?" I asked at my highest point of curiosity.

"The Cruciatus Curse is a torture curse. When cast successfully the curse inflicts intense, excruciating pain on the victim." I nodded again. "And well, I think the Killing Curse explaines itself." I nodded again. He still looked very seriously. I could imagne why. It were not the most good-natured spells.

He stood up, grabbed the book out of my hands and placed it back in bookcase and asked while he was still faced to the bookcase: "Are you interested in The Dark Arts?" He had asked it with a normal expression as if it was very normal.

I took a while to come up with a good answer to not look like an evil kid, cause I actually was interested in The Dark Arts.

He was surprised by my silence and turned around. "Well?" he asked curiously. "Well, it sounds exciting and very interesting." I replied guiltily, while I scrathed my neck with my right hand. Severus showed the same facial expression as a moment before. One of shock, but also a bit of proud. "But I read that most of it is highly illegal, so I won't read about it anymore." I quickly added.

"Look" he said, but took a small pause before he said: "you can read every book in my house if you want, cause that will give you knowledge and knowledge gives power, but…" he took another small pause. "You have to promise me that you will never use your knowledge for things of which you think they are bad, okay?" he asked almost imploringly.

I hadn't expected that and was very surprised. "I promise." I stated a bit too happy. He nodded and said: "let's eat supper before it's cold." He walked towards the kitchen and I followed him. With a victorious grin on my face.

He had already covered the table and placed a pan on the table. The content of the pan smelled delicious.

We seated ourselves on the same seats as we had sat on during lunche and looked at each other. Severus opened the pan and the delicious smell got stronger. He gestured to me with his hand to take some food.

I picked the big spoon next to the pan up and got some stew. It looked purple mixed with yellow. The yellow stuff looked like pieces of potato, but I had no idea what the purple stuff was.

Severus got some more stew than me and started eating. I didn't want to be rude and started too. My first bite was delicious. The stew was sweeter than I had expected. The yellow stuff was indeed potato. However, I still had no idea what the purple stuff was. I ate further with great pleasure.

"Do you like it?" Severus asked politely. "Yes." I answered, very contented. "I realy do." I added with smile on my face. "Good." he simply said.

"you are a good cook. Fast and delicious." I complimented him. He looked surprised, confused and shocked, all at the same time. "Thank you." he responded uneasily. He clearly wasn't used to compliments about his cooking. "I think that the 'fast' comes from the magic I use when I cook." he said modestly. I nodded. "Maybe. But I think it's also a bit of talent." I told him with a grin. He didn't look that happy at all. Didn't he like compliments? Who would not like compliments?

"Might I ask what the purple stuff in the stew is?" I asked curiously. "Well, I am happy you ask." "Why?" I asked quickly after his response. "Because it's cabbage." he replied without any expression in his voice, nor on his face. "Why are you happy than?" I asked, clearly confused. "Because it's not just cabbage." he answered with the angles of his mouth a bit raised. Now I knew. He was joking with me. Saying things, but actually nothing. "What kind of cabbage is it than?" I asked with a smile. "It's a special cabbage." he replied with the same facial expression. "And what makes it special than?" I asked a bit louder and with a big grin on my face. "Well, because it just is." he said. Now I was done with it. I hit my hands playfully on the table and asked loudly with joy: "please just answer the question! I want to know!" He smiled. Was this the first time I had seen him smile?

"Okay, okay I will tell you. It has been a long time since I have joked with someone." He said with still a grin on his face. "Why so long?" I asked. His happy face disappeared. He took a pause. Utter silence. I didn't dare to say something. What had I done wrong?

"Well, eat your food. Otherwise it's get cold." he stated, very frustrated. I decided it was better not to react and just go on eating.

"Well, now you pranked me, what is the purple stuff?" I asked. His face became a bit less frustrated. "It's fairy cabbage." "Is that made of fairies?" I asked quickly after his answer with widened eyes and not realising how stupid that sounded. He smiled again. "No, no, it's not MADE OF fairies. It's CULTURED BY fairies." he explained. "Realy?" He nodded. "There are big fields with these kind of cabbages. The fairies take care of the cabbages until they are ready to be harvested. Then, wizards come to harvest them." "That sounds nicer than how the people without magic do it." I said wit a big smile. "Muggles?" Severus asked. "Yes, I forgot the name for... them." I replied. Severus nodded.

It was slilent for the rest of supper. Pretty uneasy.

Supper ended with Severus' question: "are you done?" "Yes." I replied. "You too?" "Yes, me too." he replied. So uncomfortable. How could our nice conversation about the stew end up like this?

He got his wand out of his pocket and the table cleared itself. I looked stunned while the pan, the glasses and all the other stuff on the table, flew towards the sink and landed on the counter. I had seen these kind of things before today, but it still fogged me.

Severus still held his wand in his hand. He looked at me. "I don't have a dessert today. I forgot to buy one." "Don't mind." I said with a small smile. "Good." he responded.

"I am going to do the dishes." he said, looking back over his shoulder. "Do I need to help you?" I asked, feeling a bit bad about doing nothing. "Shall I save us the effort?" he asked. I didn't respond, waiting for the magic.

He waved the wand in his hand and all the dishes started doing itself. "'Doing the dishes' he said. He only waved his wand." Ithought while looking at the bewitched plates.

"I have seen you doing those things a couple of times today, but you still surprise me everytime." I stated. "Maybe more tomorrow." he responded.

"Technically, I can do what you just did, right? I mean I am a witch." I remarked, realizing that it was true. A smile appeared on my face. "Well, technically yes, but you need to practise a lot before you can do what I just did." he answered. "Doing spells non-verbally is harder than spaeking them out loud. You will all learn it on Hogwarts later on." "Can't you teach me? You seem a very good wizard." I complimented him, hoping he would teach me. He laughed it of. "I know what you are doing." he said with a fake smile. "Never try to manipulate me again." he stated much angrier.

"But why not? You are a teacher at Hogwarts right?" "Yes I am, but not a teacher that teaches students how to wave their wands." he retorted sneerlingly, still standing next to the counter. "But it has nothing to do with that." Severust ook a pause and thought for a second. "Actually it does, but most importantly because children are not allowed to do magic outside Hogwarts. So, like I said, you will learn in it at Hogwarts." he told me more calmly. His answer disappointed me.

"Well, I will show you your room upstairs. If you want to follow me." He didn't wait for an answer and just walked outside the kitchen. I followed him outside, grabbed my bag- that stood next to a chair in the living room- and went up the stairs. The stairs made a turn to the right and we entered a dark place.

The stairs led to a dark rectangular overflow. Green soft carpeting covered the floor. The walls were white, but seemed grey due to the lag of light. The dark brown, wooden ceiling made it even darker. The only light, which could reach the overflow, came out of the window in the bathroom. The bathroom door was the only open door. One door on the left side, three doors opposite to the stairs and the bathroom door on the right side. All white like the walls and all had a little rectangular, opaque window. A dark brown, wooden fence- the same wood as the ceiling- protected people from falling of the overflow.

Severus opened one of the three doors opposite to the stairs, the right one, and said: "well, this will be your room." He walked further into the room and opened the curtains of the window on the right side of the room.

The room looked nice, but old. The walls were just as white as the ones on the overflow and the floor had the same green carpeting. The ceiling was diffrent. This one was flat and just as white as the walls. There was a door in the left wall, just as white as the walls.

When Severus had opened the curtains, my eyes noticed two windows and all the furniture way much better. A wooden wardrobe in the left corner- opposite to the door-, a wooden single bed with a dark green duvet and white pillow next to the wardrobe- headboard to the wall-, a wooden nightstand to the right side of the bed, a wooden desk with office chair- opposite to the bed- and a wooden dresser- next to the desk-.

"You can wash yourself in the bathroom, to the left. Take a shower if you want." he said uneasily and turned away. "Just suit yourself." he said while he walked out of the room. The next I heard were foodsteps on the stairs.

"Well, goodnight to you too, sir." I thought, while staring at the door.

**Author's Notes:**

**Hey reader!**

**Magical stew? Did that bring them more together or not?**

**Ellea's first day at Snape's house was exhausting, Will Ellea be been able to go to sleep in her new strange environment? Read next weeks' chapter to find out.**

**See you next week!**


	13. Bedtime adventure

I placed my bag on the bed and wanted to sleep, but my curiosity was bigger than my urge to sleep. Severus' basement had made me wondering if he had more rooms with magical stuff. I was nearly sure of it.

I wanted to know about the rest of the rooms. "What would be inside of those?" I wondered. "Maybe more awesome magical things! But maybe I shouldn't do it. I can ask Severus later. But I would like to know it now!" I discussed with myself. In the end, I decided to just do it. What could go wrong if I just stayed silent? He wouldn't notice.

I firstly opened the door in the bedroom, now my room I supposed. It appeared to be an empty wardrobe. Well empty, just some blankets and another pillow. Disappointing. I wanted to find something more adventurous, so I quietly walked out of the room towards the first closed door. The one opposite to the bathroom. I pushed down the door handle and the door opened with a small crackling noise. I statled. "I hope it didn't make to much noise." I said wispered to myself with an unhappy face.

The room was small and rectangular. I stood along one of the short walls. The left wall was completely covered with bookcases full of books. On the right wall stood one brown wooden desk with a brown wooden chair. The wall opposite to me and the door had one window with green curtains.

The room looked like his office. Not really awesome. And cernainly not what I had hoped for. Disappointing again.

"Well, next room than." I thought, very bored. I turned around, closed the door and opened the door to my left- the left door of three adjacent doors of the overflow-. Unlike the previous one, the door opened quietly, smoothly. Good.

The room was just as big as the one of which Severus had said it was for me to use. The walls, ceiling and floor were the same as in my room. In the room stood- in the middle of the wall opposite to me- a dark brown wooden bed and a nightstand- with an alarm clock on it- in the same kind of wood as the bed. They looked older than the bed and nightstand in my room. "Maybe because he gave me his guest room." I thought. A wooden dresser stood opposite to the bed- next to me-. There was a window in the left wall with the same curtains as the ones in my room. In the right wall was a door, similar to the one in my room.

"I'm sure this is his bedroom." I thought, already knowing that it was true. "That door on the right is similar to the one in my room and that turned out to be a wardrobe, so this must be a wardrobe too."

I walked over to the door, ready to open it, but stopped right infront of it.

"What am I doing?" I asked myself out loud. "This is HIS room, NOT YOURS." I stated strictly inside of my mind. "But why don't you want to look at it." one part of my brain asked. "Because I don't have the right to look in it. It's HIS. It's privat." I told myself fiercely and wanted to walk away, but thhen the same part of my brain started talking again. "Come on, Ellea. He would't notice. Just do it!" it encouraged me. I frowned. I had to stop thinking about this and just walk away, but I couldn't. The weird part of my brain had been right, he wouldn't notice.

I opened the door, trying to keep the sound of opening it as silent as possible.

When I looked inside, I saw clothes, all black or atleast very dark. Long black pants, black blouses, some dark jackets, one pair of black shoes and more dark clothes, but nothing special. The only strange thing was all his dark clothes. "Why all so dark?" I asked myself silently out loud. "Black is indeed a beatiful colour, but so much black clothes?"

I had found nothing really special and that thought bored me.

I closed the wardrobe and headed for the dresser. It had three drawers. I started with the one below. It contained a green and grey striped shawl. It had en green snake on it. "Strange" I thought. "Why would a man like him wear something like this? A shawl with a snake. It looks like it's made for children."

I opened the second drawer, I saw a black robe. I got it out to get a better look. It was very long, but not too long, like it was made for an adolescent. The robe had a snake badge on the chest and a hood. The snake emblem looked like the one on the shawl. "What would he use it for?" I asked myself. I had no explination. I placed the robe back into the drawer.

The third and last drawer contained black socks and some underpants. All black of cours. Not very interesting.

I closed the drawer silently and walked over tot he door.

"Still nothing special." I thought, disappointed. "But, I have another room to check." I encouraged myself.

I walked back to the overflow and closed the bedroom door.

I headed for the next door and wanted to open it, but on that moment, I heard steps from downstairs. The sounds startled me. The startle made me realize again that what I was doing was wrong. However, my curiousity too strong.

I opened the door and saw a stairs, leading towards the attic. It was dark upstairs, so I pushed the light switch and created some light. The yellow light revealed a big room with a sloping roof.

I walked up the stairs and saw more of the room with each step. The room had a brown, wooden ceiling and green floor covering. In the room stood a few dressers and closets.

I opened a random dresser without any hesitation and looked at its content. One book with a black cover. I rolled my eyes. "Another book." I remarked disappointingly. However, this book had no title, in contrast to all the other books Severus owned. It made me curious why, so I opened the book on a random page.

What I saw surprised me. Pictures of a pale young boy with greasy black hair. This picture moved, just like the other moving pictures I had seen in that weird newspaper of Severus. However, this time, I wasn't surprised by it. I was too fixated on the boy on the picture. He was playing a toy ca rand sometimes looked up at the camera and smiled. The boy looked like a two or three year old, but I knew what had become of him when he was years older, It was clearly Severus.

I turned the page and saw an older Severus- around six years old- siting on a desk, reading a book. He didn't look that happy on this photo, as he had been on the previous one. He looked with an emotionless frown at the camera, then back at his book.

I turned another page and saw Severus, in a black robe- it looked similar tot he one I had previously seen in Severus' bedroom, but this one had no logo of a snake on it-, a tie- with a peculiar logo of some kind of shield- and with his wand in his hand, standing in the backyard. He looked proud and smiled at the camera.

I wondered how Severus would have been as a baby, so I flipped the pages back to the beginning. A came across an unmoving picture. A pale, proud woman with long, black hair held a baby in her arms. The woman looked at her baby with a smile. I to recognized the room they were in. My bedroom.

I turned the page and saw another unmoving picture from an adult man holding the baby. The man had en emotionless face, like Severus had. I couldn't find more similarities.

I wanted to look at more photo's, but I heard sounds from downstairs. I strtled and quickly put the book back in the dresser. I quickly walked down the stairs and hope dit wouldn't make too much noise.

I walked to the bathroom to take a shower like Severus had said and hoped he had not noticed a thing.

The bathroom wasn't big, normal I think. The walls were covered with small white tiles, which were just as white as the ceiling. A window- opposite to me- filled the room with light. In the left corner was the sink- with some kind of dresser underneath it-, next to the toilet. In the right corner stood the shower.

I searched for a towel, a washcloth, some shampoo and soap and found them immediately in the upper drawer. Thanks to my sound accident just a moment earlier, I had no curiousity to look inside the other two drawers. My curiosity was gone, at least for now.

I got out of my clothes and stepped into the shower. And now, something followed I had had always problems with when I slept at somebody else's home: figuring out how the shower works.

First, the water was very cold, then very warm. What followed were some swear words from me.

Finally, after turning the buttons over and over again in an attempt to get the water temperature right, I got it. I sighed. A sigh of relief.

The shower was just what I had needed. I hadn't had one in a few days and that was visible. My hair had been messy and greasy and my body had felt very dirty.

Underneath the shower, I had time to think. About the last couple of days, all the magic, Severus and the photo's on the attic. I wondered if he had more pictures of himself, other than the photo album. "Maybe ont he attic." I thought. I had not seen pictures of people in the living room or anywhere else in the house. And doubted if he had more photo's.

I stopped thinking about it and turned off the shower. I was clean and that felt way much better.

When I had dried myself, I searched for a hairbrush to comb my messy hair. I found it in the upper drawer, just like the other stuff. It had still a few black hairs in it, but I couldn't care. My hair was also black. He probably wouldn't even notice if some of my hair stayed stuck in it too. So, I grabbed the hairbrush and started combing my black hair, while I looked inside the mirror above the sink.

I looked exhausted. Exactly how I felt. The bags under my eyes made me look sick and old. I just needed some sleep.

When I was done combing my hair, I walked to the bed in my room, placed the backpack- which still stood on the bed- next to the nightstand, put my underpants and shirt back on, closed the curtains and the door and layed down in bed.

It felt good. Very good. Soft and good just like the pillow. So good. I fell asleep.

**Author's Note:**

**Hey reader!**

**Ellea is very curious, isn't she? Too curious? It was rude to rummage through Severus' stuff, wasn't it?**

**Has Severus noticed her rummaging upstairs? Will the next day bring them more together? Or will they need more time? Or will the next day only bring up bad feelings towards each other? Read next weeks' chapter to find out.**

**See you next week!**


	14. From discussions to quarrels

I woke up, due to the sound of something downstairs. Something woke me up and that would normally piss me off, but not today. I had a good feeling about this. I had no idea why.

I opened the curtains, got into my cloths and wondered what the day would bring me today.

I combed my hair, freshed myself up. When I did so, I heard the sound again. It was a sissing sound, like something was being baked. I decided to take a look.

It appeared to come out of the kitchen and when I looked, I saw Severus waving his wand and a lot of pots and pants flying above the counter.

I stood in the doorway of the kitchen and watched at what he did, not wanting to distract him from what he was doing.

He was making fried eggs with bacon. The delicious smell made me feel wonderful and hungry.

Severus was done a moment later. All the pots and pans flew back to the positions of which they had come. Severus lowered his wand, looked at the astonishing fried eggs on a plate at the counte and put his wand in his pocket. He looked over his shoulder and saw me standing in the doorway.

"Goodmorning." he said while turning around. His monotonous voice ruined my mood a bit, but I knew he ment it all right, so I responded simply: "Goodmorning."

"I have made fried eggs." he stated uneasily, showing the fried eggs by stepping away and gesturing with his hand to the eggs. "They look delicious." I stated with a smile on my face. I was happy about him trying to be nice, cause I could see that he felt really uneasy about the complete situation. He wasn't the only one.

He placed two plates- with two fried egg on each- on the table. The table was already set. Two glassen of milk, cutlery, some slices of bread in a straw basket, butter, marmalade and some slices of cheese.

"Did you sleep well?" he asked as we seated ourselves at the table in the kitchen. "Yes, I did." "I am glad to hear that." he didn't smile as he said it. Strange, cause I had expected one. Maybe hoped for one. He never smiled.

"Last night, I looked upstairs to see if everything was all right, cause I hadn't heard a sound for a long time, but when I came upstairs, I saw that you were already asleep." he explained. I cheered inside my head. He hadn't noticed me rummaging upstairs.

"You must have been really tired, weren't you?" he asked politely. "Yes, I was, but now I have enough energy again." "Good." he said. "You will need it today." He wanted to say it with a mysterious voice, I could hear that, but his normal monotonous voice made it sound a bit weird.

"What are we going to do?" I asked curiously before I took a bite of my fried eggs. "You will see." he answered with the same weird mysterious voice. I looked with a slanted head and a small grin at him. "You can look whatever you want, but I am not going to tell you." he stated convincingly.

"When did you came up with this idea?" I asked. "Last night." he replied. His eyebrows went a bit up. I knew he knew what I was up to. Getting to know the surprise. However, knowing that didn't seem to please him

"I need to do something with you. Otherwise, you would only be bored. You don't know the neighbourghood, so you would never find your way back home if you went playing outside." he explained.

"You will never guess what we are going to do." he stated a bit teasingly and irritated at the same time. He took another bite of his fried eggs. "So, don't try to find out.". "I beg to differ." I stated full of confidence. Severus sighed. He was clearly irritated.

"All right than. You may ask three questions. I give a 'yes' or a 'no' as answers. You may guess three times. One time after each answer. If you can't quess it, than you won't know it until lunch." "You dare me?" I asked, clearly surprised. He acted out of the ordinary. Strange. Suspicious, but also fun.

"Yes. And that was your first question." he stated without any emotion. "No, you must be kidding, right?!" I asked with a loud voice. "No. And that was your second question." he said still monotonously. I sighed and realized that I had ruined it for myself.

I needed to ask something that would make his surprise clear, but I couldn't think of one. So I asked: "You really planned this?" "Yes." he replied. "And I think you wil really like it."

The rest of breakfast was pretty quiet. I was wondering about the surprise. I had no idea about what he was thinking, but he seemed pleased.

After breakfast, Severus waved his wand and all the stuff on the table flew back to the kitchen counter.

Severus walked to the living room and looked at the window with a view to the street. He looked liverish.

"What's wrong?" I asked, standing behind him in the doorway. "Normally, Luka would deliver me The Daily Prophet before 10 A.M. , but he seems to be late today.

The Daily Prophet. I remembered that I had seen those words on that strange newspaper the day before.

"Is Luka your owl?" I asked curiously. "Yes, he is. And a good one too." he said while he walked to the window. "But don't tell him. Then, he will get arrogant." he added.

"Where do you buy owls? I mean, our's must be really special, cause they can fly to the Wizarding World and back." "They are magical. Not special." he stated seriously. "I bought my owl at a shop in Diagon Alley."

"Where is that?" I asked curiously. "It's in London. You lived there, right?" he asked while he looked over his shoulder to me. "Yes, I did, but I have never noticed a shop where people could by owls." "I can imagne. The Wizarding World takes care of securing itself against Muggles."

He looked back to the window and said:" oh, there he is." He passed me, to go to the kitchen and opened the door to the backyard. On that moment, something black seemed to fall out of the sky. "Ah, there you are." I heard Severus snarl.

My curiousity overwhelmed me again. I walked to the kitchen to see what was going on.

When I looked through the window in the kitchen, I saw Severus talking to a black owl. The owl sat on the ground and had a newspaper between its legs.

"You are late." he said to the owl. "Give me the newspaper." he demanded. The owl flew upwards and Severus grabbed the newspaper out if his legs. The owl landed on the ground again.

"The weather is good, so I don't get why it took you so long." he said with his normal monotononous voice. "You don't deserve a treat." He turned around and walked back inside with the newspaper in his hands. The owl took off and flew through a window on the left side of a shed in the backyard.

I looked at the shed while Severus looked at me. "So, that's Luka?" I asked while I turned to him. "Yes, he is a good owl, but sometimes a bit slowly at delivering." he said while passing me and walking towards a green armchair.

He took place in his armchair and placed the newspaper on his lap.

"I'm going to read this newspaper, so time to enjoy yourself." he said a bit cold-hearted. He opened his newspaper, lifted it up and started reading.

I was confused. I didn't know what to do and what I could do. What did he expect me to do?

I looked around the room, still confused, and saw all his books. "This would be a nice opportunity to read some of them." I thought pleased.

While looking at one of his bookcases, I wondered about his behaviour against his owl. "Would everyone talk to their owls like that? Don't think so. He had been rude against it. Why? He was just a bit later than usual." I thought.

I still looked at the bookcase, but now wondered about which book I was going to read. Normally, I wasn't really a reader, but his books about magic and the fact that I could do those things too, created an urge to read inside of me.

A lot of titels sounded interesting, but one really stood out to me: Dark Arts And How To Use Them. I got the book out of the bookcase, seated myself on the couch and opened the book.

It started with some general information about dark magic. I had already read some of it in my previous book about the Dark Arts. However, some information was new. For instance, Dark Magic is often used for evil things, but Dark Magic isn't evil on itself. It can also be used for good.

I read about dark spells and dark potions. What they could do, how to make the potions and how to perform the spells.

Time passes quickly when you have a good time and before I had known it, it was time for lunch.

"It's time for lunch." Severus stated while he got out of his armchair and threw the newspaper on the coffee table. I closed my book and put it on the coffeetable too.

Severus looked at the book, than at me. "The Dark Arts again?" he asked. "Yes." I simply said bravely and wondered how he was going to react to it.

"Remember what I have told you about it." he stated strictly. "I know, it's just interesting." I responded quickly. "I know it's interesting, but I know what it can do and YOU don't." he said firmly. "How do you know?" I asked him with an emotionless voice. He frowned. "Why do you think I have all those books!? It's also my interest!" he stated fiercely.

"Have you ever performed it?" I asked curiously, still calmly.

Severus frowned. A frown of anger, but also a one of confusion. The rest of his face looked puzzled. He took a small pause before he shouted: "upstairs!" He pointed to the stairs. "Now!"

Now, I was puzzled. "Why..." I started, but Severus interupted me. "I told you to act normal, but this is day two and you are already not listening! Go upstairs!" he yelled.

I knew that arguing wouldn't help me, so I did as he had said and walked up the stairs. When I was halfway the stairs, I heard Severus shout: "don't come down until I tell you you can come down!" I didn't respond and walked further.

I entered my room, closed the door, leaned against it with my back, closed my eyes and sighed. "You are here for only two days and you have already screwed it up. Thanks Ellea." I told myself out loud.

Sadness overwhelmed me. Tears filled my eyes. "You have fought so hard for this. To get where you are now and the only thing you can do is screwing everything up!"I told myself with the tears running down my cheeks.

I ran to my bed and fell on it. I buried my face in my pillow, so the sound of my crying was quieter.

I needed at least five minutes to stop crying and to think clearly again.

"I hope he won't kick me out." I thought when I sat down on the edge of the bed. "He won't. He's your dad." I thought in response to my last thought.

The clock showed me the time. It was half past twelve. Time for lunch. I sighed. I was probably going to miss it.

I looked through the window, still sitting on the bed and wondered what I could do to make things better in the future. "I think we just need to know each other better before everything will be okay between us. Well, he must first know for sure that I am his daughter. That's why he is so uneasily." I nodded. That was probably right.

For now, I just have to apologize." I thought, but than I thought: "but why actually? What have I done wrong? I just read that is nothing to apologize for. My behaviour was normal, his wasn't. Than why do I have to aplogize? He has to apologize!" I couldn't stop myself from nodding. I agreed with myself. He had been wrong, I had not been wrong. He had to apologize, not me.

I waited and waited. Time passes slowly when you are bored. I took multiple positions on the bed to lay comfortably, but none seemed to be the right one.

I thought about things that had happened in the passed. Things with mom and dad, on school or on the street with my friends. I smiled, thinking about them. The memories were beautiful. I would never forget them.

A few memories later, someone opened the door. I got up from the bed and there he stood in the doorway. He frowned. I took a quick glance at the clock. It was one o'clock.

"We need to talk." he said firmly. He walked to my bed and seated himself on the edge. He looked over his shoulder to me. I was sitting cross legged infront of my pillow and looked at him, while wondering about what he was going to say.

His eyes pointed to the edge of the bed. I understood the gesture and seated myself next to him on the edge of the bed.

"I tried to start of realy nicely like Dumblodore had recommended but..." "I am sorry." I interrupted him. He looked at me with a face of surprise. It took him awhile to say: "Apology accepted."

"But we are going to do it differently." he said with his normal voice. I was confused, so that was the look I gave him.

"You are in a new, strange home with all kinds of strange things and I think that makes you feel uncomfortable. That makes you a bit grumpy." he explained. I nodded. He was right about me feeling a bit uncomfortable, and of cours, everything was so new and strange. It had been a bit overwhelming and I didn't know how to handle some things properly, but he wasn't right about me being grumpy. I wasn't grumpy! However, I decided not to tell him that. That would not be wise in this situation.

"I am going to give you some chores around the house, so you have some responsibility here." he said. "So, I give you the responsiblity to take care of the owls." I was surprised. I had not expected this. "Your owl? That's okay. Are there more chores?" "Yes, your owl too. He arrived I think ten minutes ago." he said. I smiled. I had nearly forgotten about Rowan and realised that he must feel better now.

"And I want you to find ingredients for my potions sometimes." he said. "That's okay." I responded. "Good." he stated and nodded.

"Well, let's eat lunch." he said while he stood up. He was walking to the door when I asked: "are we good now?" I saw in his eyes that he had not expected this question. However, he slightly nodded and said: "Yes. Yes we are."

**Author's Note:**

**Are they fully okay now? Will Ellea commit to her chores? Read next weeks' chapter to find out.**

**See you next week!**


	15. Prepare for a surprise

We walked downstairs, to the kitchen. He had already prepared lunch. Two cheese sandwiches each. They looked good.

As we seated ourselves, Severus said unwillingly: "we need to talk about the Dark Arts again." I stayed silent and waited for what would come. I decided to accept everyting he would say, to avoid another quarrel. The Dark Arts weren't that important to me anyway.

"Lots of people think bad about Dark Magic. They think it's evil. But Dark Magic isn't by definition evil. Dark magic can be used for bad things indeed, but it can also be used for good things. But most people don't realize that." I nodded and listened carefully.

"People thought that my interest for the Dark Arts was wrong. They thought I was malicious. I got some problems with that at Hogwarts when I was a student. I know diffrently and they don't. I know that it can also do good things. However, it is very dangerous." His eyes deepened as he said so. It sent a shiver down my spine.

"The Dark Arts are pragmatic in nature, where very time a branch is defeated, it only comes back fiercer and cleverer than before. It is therefore importants that your defences must be as versatile as your attack." he explained. "And because you don't know any defences, I don't want you to try things or whatever. Reading is fine, but nothing more. More can be highly illegal and/or dangerous. I am doing this to protect and not to bully you." He frowned while he said it. Not an angry frown, but a frown concern. I was surprised. I had expected him to be very strict, but this wasn't to bad.

"That's okay. It wasn't my idea to try it soon, but I won't try it at all from now on. Trust me." "I trust you." he stated. "But don't waste my trust." "I won't." "Then it's good."

The rest of lunch was pretty quiet. I thought about seeing Rowan again and I could see that Severus was deeply in thought too. I wondered about what.

Lunch ended quickly and soon, I saw Severus waving his wand to clear the table.

"I think it's time for our little adventure." he said.

I remembered that we had talked about that during breakfast and had nearly forgotten about it.

"I am going to get some stuff. Just wait here." he said while walking to the living room. "Can I go to see Rowan?" I asked. "Yes, sure. They are in the shed." he said when he walked through the doorway. I turned around and opened the door to the backyard.

Severus' backyard wasn't that big, but big enough. The complete backyard was surrounded by stone walls of atleast two meters high. Pretty intimidating for a girl of my size. Only one small strip of half-dead plants stood against the left wall. The rest of the ground in the backyard was covered with gray, concrete tiles. Depressing. However, it suited Severus in my opinion.

One wooden door in the back was the only thing that interrupted the wall. "Wouldn't Severus feel a bit locked up?" I wondered. I quickly came tot he conclusion that if he did, he would had already done something about it.

In the right corner- on the end of the backyard against the right wall and the wall in the back- stood the shed. Completely black, but some points became a bit brown again. I could see he hadn't painted it in years.

I walked towards the shed. I was hesitant to open the door. What would happen? The owls could get scared and attack me. Possible. Or Severus' owl, Luka, could attack me out of anger. Luka doesn't know me and I would invade his 'home'. An attack would be logically. Very possible.

I decided to first look through the open window- on the left side of the shed- to see what to expect.

I couldn't see much, due to the sunlight outside and the darkness inside the shed. However, I could see four eyes looking at me. Knowing that two of those eyes were Rowan's, made me less scared.

While opening the shed, I looked at the owls. I stepped inside and let the door open, so I could escape if things went wrong. They were owls. Pretty wild creatures, right? I had to be carfull.

Once inside, I could see the owls clearer. One was completely black and had yellow eyes, Luka. He looked intimidating, but I knew that he would be nice if I knew him better. How I knew? Severus was the same.

The other owl was Rowan. My Rowan. He sat on a wooden chest and looked at me. I could see the happiness in his eyes. He crowed and flapped his wings. I smiled in return.

"I am happy to see you Rowan." I said to him and stretched out my arm. He understood my gesture, flew in the air and landed on my arm. I smiled, happy to see him again. I was surprised how much I liked the animal. I had only known him for a few days and he already felt like a good companion to me.

I stroked him with my index finger over his head. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the petting, his muscles relaxed.

Rowan was happy and I was happy, because he was happy. I imagned us to be a good team together.

Luka stared at me from his wooden stick which was attached to the wall. I could nearly feel his gaze on my cheek.

"Hey Luka." I simply greeted the animal. "I am Ellea and I am going to take care of you from now on." I said uneasily. Luka kept staring at me without any form of response. I took that as a 'no problem'.

"This is our new home Rowan." I said while turning to the house. "But this is where you are going to live." I told him while I turned back to the black wall in the shed. I looked around the room and only saw the wooden stick with Luka, a wooden chest and two food bowls- one filled with water and one filled with chunks of food-.

My face face swapped from happy to a bit sad. "I am going to spruce this shed, so you have a nice place to live." I said to Rowan. "Doesn't that sound great?" I asked him. He didn't respond, but was happy nonetheless.

I stroked him with my finger again. "I am happy that you feel better, Rowan." I said while stroking his brown feathers. He was so beautiful. Luka was also beautiful with his spotless black feathers, but Rowan was in my opinion a bit more beautiful- probably because Rowan was mine and Luka wasn't-.

"Are you ready?" I heard from behind me. I turned around and saw Severus with a backpack. "Yes, I am." I said and placed Rowan back on the wooden chest. "See you guys later. And be nice to each other." I said to the two owls with a smile on my face.

I closed the door of the shed and walked over to Severus who was locking the back door of the house.

"Everything alright with your owl?" he asked when he was done. "Yes, he looks better than ever!" I replied happily. Severus didn't seem to be in the mood I was. "Good, let's go then." he said while walking to the wooden door in the back of the backyard.

"Why the backpack?" I asked him curiously. He looked at me and said: "Because that's necessary for what we are going to do." he explained monotonously. It seemed like I had made him nervous with my question like a lot of times when I asked him a question. Now, I started to notice that. However, wasn't he a teacher? Didn't his job consist of explaining things and answering questions? He was a peculiar man. A peculiar man he was indeed.

**Author's Note:**

**Hey reader!**

**Thanks for all the reviews, followers, favorites and views! I like writing this story and seeing people like what I write really supports me to go on with this. I promise next chapter is bigger!**

**Curious about the surprise Snape has for Ellea? Read next weeks' chapter to find out.**

**See you next week!**


	16. The power of nature

We walked through the door and entered a street which looked exactly like all the other streets.

I followed Severus through many streets. He seemed to know the way through this maze very well.

After a few streets, we walked past an older woman. She looked like seventy years old with her gray locks. Her face looked gentle compared with her small body. She first looked confused when she saw me, but then smiled at me. I didn't understand her confusion. However, I wasn't in the mood to think about why she had looked at me that way.

Severus passed her without even looking at her. I nodded to greet her and she nodded in response.

After a walk- which had seemed like five minutes- we reached a line of green shrubs and trees at the end of a street. A path through the woods let us to a small lake with a river which flowed further into the woods. The water looked black and unhealthy in contrast to the green grass- surrounding the lake- which looked very healthily.

We both looked at the place. It was beautiful. We had looked in awe for a while before Severus interupted the silence.

"We are going to searche for ingredients for potions." he said monotonously. "Can we find those here?" I asked incredulously. I couldn't imagne that those things I had seen in his basement, things like unicorn horns and unicorn hair, could be found here.

"A lot of things can be used for magical purposes. You should only know how to use them." he replied. "First, we are going to look for nettle."

"What does nettle do?" "Nettle is a defensive and at the same time, an aggressive plant. The leaves hurt all the animals and people they touch to protect itself." he explained. "I mean, what happens if you add it to a potion?" "Well, that depends, but like I said, it's a defensive and aggressive plant, so it normally makes potions stronger." he explained. His face lit a bit up as he spoke about his potions. It was clearly his passion. And that was logically for a Potions Master.

"Well, let's go and find it." he said.

We were walking towards the edge of the woods again when Severus asked: "do you know how to find nettle?" "No, but I guess it grows on moisty soil." I replied, cause those were the only places I had ever seen nettle.

"You are right. You can find netlle along the waterside, but also on random places in the woods. They love moderately dry to wet soil, nutrient-rich soil and places in the shadow." he explained to me. His face looked politely and strictly at the same time. He liked teaching me about it- and of cours. He was a professor at Hogwarts.-.

"Interesting." I simply said and walked further along his side.

"So, if I tell you that there is a river." He pointed at the right. "Then you know where to find it, right?" "Yes." I replied. "You can go and get a full jar of netlle leaves. When you are done, you come back to the backpack. Do you think you can do that?" he asked the question as if intended rhetorically, but I said 'yes' in response.

He placed the backpack on the ground. "I am going to get some stuff by myself. So just wait for a moment. It won't take long." he said while opening the backpack and getting out two jars. Not very big ones. I imagned that it would take ten minutes to fill if I would find enough plants.

Severus gave me the jar and walked away without looking back.

After watching him walk away for a moment, I decided to do what he had asked and walked off to find the netlle plants.

I walked through the forrest, in the direction he had pointed to. After a few minutes, I reached it.

The water was black, just like the lake, but this looked better, fresher, cleaner. It rippled over a few stones and made a fine sound.

On the left, I could see the river ending in the lake. On my right, I saw the river going deeper and deeper into the forrest.

I saw no nettle on this spot, so I walked upstream, deeper into the forest.

After I had done some seaching, I found it, a few nettle plants. I opened the jar and wanted to pick a leaf, but stopped. I had realised that touching a netlle leaf hurts a lot.

I wrapped my hand in my coat and touched a leaf. No reaction, no pain. So I picked a leaf and put it into the jar. I picked another leaf and put into the jar. No pain. My idea worked. However, after a while of picking leaves without pain, things went too well. It had made me reckless.

My grasp, to hold my wrapped hand, weakened and when I wanted to pick the next leaf, the coat dropped a bit of my hand and fingers touched the nettle.

I pulled my fings away, immediately. My fingers hurted. I waved my hand back and forth, but the pain did not disappear. My fingers felt warmer and warmer every second. When I looked at my fingers, I saw red spots appearing on them. The red spots started to itch, but I knew I should not scratch. That would only make it worse.

My best idea was to put them into the water of the river and when I did so, it gave me a feeling of relief. But when a got my hand back out after a few minutes, the pain returned and I put them quickly back into the water.

"What do I have to do with this? I can't stay here forever." I thought. I looked around and saw the jar standing on the ground. It was only half full. I sighed. I knew I couldn't complete the task with my fingers hurting like this, so I got out of the water, grabbed the jar and walked back to the backpack.

Severus had already been waiting there. He seemed a bit impatient.

"Where have you been?" he asked a bit angrily when he saw me walking towards him. "I accidentally touched a nettle leaf with my bare hands, so I couldn't fill the jar completely." I answered, disappointed in myself.

"But it doesn't take that long to fix that, does it?" he asked irritated. "I can't do magic like you." I replied. "I know you can't, but you don't need magic to fix everything. There are other ways you know." he said even more agitated. "I thought you as a… well, raised as a muggle, would know there are other ways." I scowled at him for being so rude.

"But a assume you don't know that way, do you?" "I don't know that way." I said, now standing infront of him. He looked me right in thee yes, his features softened. He sighed.

"Does your hand still hurt?" he asked nicer. I let go of my anger frustration too.

"Yes. Well, a bit." I replied, trying to not sound like a wimp. "Show me your hands." he demanded nicely. He examined my fingers and said: "I will show you how to undo the pain of nettle."

"Follow me." he demanded while walking towards the river. I followed him until he stopped besides the riverside. He looked around, but didn't find where he had been looking for.

"Where did you find the nettle?" "A bit more up the stream."

We walked further and found the nettle plants. "The antidote to the poison of the nettle grows next to it. It's called: plantain." he explained.

He looked at the ground and walked through the bunch of nettle plants. He seemed not afraid of the nettle poison. He also had no reason to be so. His black clothes showed nothing from his skin, except his hands, nack and face. His cape swept behind him as if he was an evil lord out of fairy tales. He actually acted the same sometimes.

After a few seconds, he bowed and picked a small, green leaf.

He walked back over to me and showed me the leaf in his palm. "This is plantain, the antidote to nettle." he explained. "Give me your fingers." he demanded. I did like he had said and laid my finger in his hand. He started to rub the leaf over my fingers. He did it hard and fast. First it hurted, but the pain disappeared quickly.

Severus stopped rubbing when the leaf had become unusable. He threw the remaining of the leaf on the ground and looked me right in the eyes with his dark ones.

"Better, right?" he asked, still holding my hand. "Yes, it does." I replied. "Thank you." "You're welcome." he said, while letting go of my hand.

"What did you find?" I asked curiously. I was actually curious. However, I also wanted to change the subject. Severus had not been happy with me, not knowing about plantain. Although I knew everything was okay now, it still didn't feel good about the situation.

"I will show you." he said and walked away without waiting for me to come along.

We walked back to the backpack. Severus got out a jar full of white flowers.

"How do you call the flowers in your jar?" "That's cow parsley. I found them a little further into the woods, on a place with enough sunlight. These flowers need that." "And what happens if you put into a potion?" The question seemed to better his mood. His eyes sparkled a bit as he told me: "A lot of things can happen, but it can give an unexpected ability to a potion. Do you know why?" he asked even though he knew I simply couldn't. I nodded with a small smile. "I will show you. Follow me."

We walked a little further into the woods, just like Severus had said. He showed me a bunch of large plants. All green with on the end of each branch a half a circle, made from small, white flowers.

He took a stem from one of the plants and broke it in half. "Look." he said while showing me the end of the stem. I could see the inside of the stem." The stems are hollow, grooved and often red faded." he explained. I looked at it and saw a red, just like he had said.

"You did not expect that, did you?" "No, I expected it tob e green." "And that's the 'why'."

"Did you know that people can make flutes out of the stems of this plant?" "I didn't, but now I do." I said still fascineted by the beautiful white flowers."

"How does it come you know soo much about plants?" I asked him. "Reading." he simply said. "And Hogwarts?" "Yes, Hogwarts too, but most of it is due to self study."

"Well, I think that's enough ingredients for today. Let's go." he said while turning around and walking to the backpack.

He put the jars in the backpack, put the it on his back and we walked back his house.

On our way back, we passed the same houses as on our way towards the lake. Or at least I think so, cause all those houses look the same.

A car passed us when we turned around a corner. The driver looked at us. The expression on his face told me he was confused. But why? Why was everyone confused to see me? "Probably because I'm new in the neighborhood." I thought.

Once back home, Severus started to cook supper and I started reading. I had grabbed a book about plants and it was very interesting. I read about plants I had once heard the name of- plants in the Muggle World- and plants I had never heard of. "Probably plants which only grow there." I imagned, cause I couldn't find that information in the book.

After reading about many plants, Severus walked back into the living room. "Supper is ready."

We ate our supper in silence. The silence wasn't uneasy like the silences had been before, it felt nice and safe this time.

"Thanks for today. I really liked it." I said thankfully. He looked genuinely surprised by my comment. "You're welcome." he said and took a small pause before he said: "You seem interested, unlike a lot of my students. They don't care about the needed ingredients. They only want to get a good mark for their tests." "It's strange they aren't so motivated for your class. I learned a lot today and liked it really much." "Don't forget that I give potions and not herbology." "What's herbolgy?" "A subject at Hogwarts which learns students about plants." "Oh, so you don't take kids out on trips like today." "No."

"How do you learn kids about potions than?" "Well, I first explain how to make a potion and what it can do and so on. The students take notes of what I say, or that's what they should do." I nodded. "Than, I let them make the potions like I told them to make it." I nodded agian. "And they hand in their potions after the lesson, so I can mark them." I nodded and said: "sounds doable." "That's what I think, but a lot of students screw it up." "Than it must be at least a bit hard." I stated. "I will show you tomorrow. It really isn't that hard." "Okay, seems fun." "Potions is fun if you know how to do it correctly." he stated proudly. I hated that arrogant tone of his, but he was going to show me how to make potions, so I accepted it.

The rest of supper was silent again.

After supper, Severus did the dishes with his magic and I read further in my- apparently called: herbology- book.

After Severus was done, he seated himself in his armchair and started to read a book about potions.

"Do you want some tea?" He asked around eight o'clock. "Yes, please." I replied politely, just like my mom had learned me.

We drank tea together and read further in our books.

"I think it's time to go to bed now." he said around nine o'clock. "Oh, yes. I forgot the time. This book is really interesting." "I am glad you are into reading. A lot of children aren't." "Well, if the book is nice, than I like it, otherwise I don't." "Obviously." he said with his monotonous voice. "Well, go to bed now. It's late."

I placed the book on the coffee table and said: "goodnight." "Goodnight." he responded.

**Author's Note:**

**Will Snape really show Ellea how to make potions? Read next weeks' chapter to find out.**

**See you next week!**


	17. Testing

The next morning, I woke up by the sound of some cluttering in the bathroom. I rubbed my eyes and jumped out of bed. This was the day I was going to learn to perform magic. Well, performing. Is that the right term for making magical potions? I shrugged at the thought. Not important for now.

I got dressed and stumbled over my backpack in my enthusiasm. I looked at the thing and thoughts about my family filled my mind as if it was a bucket which was being filled underneath a tap. Me and my dad throwing over a baseball. Me and my dad in a roller coaster. I smiled at that thought. He had pretended he had liked going into that beast of a thing to prove he wasn't a wimp. As a result, he had puked so hard he had felt sick for days. Maybe it was bad to laugh at it, but come on. A man, proving to not be a wimp. That goes wrong, always.

I heard the sound of a toothbrush hitting the sink. The sound pulled me out of my reverie and made me disoriented for a brief second. I looked at the backpack again. This time, I rather became sad till a point of nearly inconsolability. I looked at the door. Not moved. I suppressed a cry, since I didn't want Severus to hear it.

I had to have some stuff from my parents in my hands to feel better. I grabbed the backpack and seated myself on the bed with the backpack on my lap. My hands were trembling as I slowly opened it. The inside revealed my mom's letter on top, crumpled a bit. I got it out and examined her handwriting. Her beautiful handwriting. The handwriting which had revealed the existence of magic to me. It had a great, but most of all a mournful touch to it. Her letter had started a new chapter in my life. Getting her letter had some conditions: I had to be still a child and they had to be dead. Horrible conditions. I wondered what would have happened if they had not died that day. If the accident had never happened. When would they have told me about all of this? "Would Severus still accept me like he does now?" I asked myself. I had no clear answer, but probably not. Now, I just had no other place to go. He had to take me in. However, when the other situation had been the case, I would still live with my parents. And even though I liked Severus, I preferred the other situation way much more.

The letter only brought up bad thoughts, so I put it aside me on the bed and dug further into the backpack. Besides some clothes, I found a photo from me and my mom. She was laughing at the camera while hugging me exuberantly. I looked at her with an awkward expression on my face.

I stared at the photo and remembered the moment it was taken. I had just gotten home from a sleepover of a friend. It had been my real first night away from home and she had worried about my well-being. She had been so relieved when she saw me coming home without trouble or something. I had felt weird about her sudden hug, cause I had not found it to be such a big deal. Now, I laughed at the thought.

I heard Severus coming out of the bathroom. I quickly turned my head to the door as if I had feared him coming in. My reaction surprised me. Why had I feared him seeing me watch these things? Did think he would become angry by seeing those things? Probably.

I decided to put everything back into the backpack and went to the bathroom.

I prepared myself for the day and went, just like Severus had done, downstairs.

Severus had already prepared breakfast and was placing the teapot on the table as I walked in.

"Good morning." I greeted him. He looked at me and greeted me back with a monotonous 'good morning'. "Oef. The Potions Master has a bad morning mood." I thought sarcastically.

We seated ourselves and began eating in silence. His mood was different than normally, I noticed. He seemed grumpy- grumpier than normally- and tensed. I wondered why. Was he afraid I would do something terribly wrong in his basement? Probably. I felt encumbered to ask why he was so tensed. To prevent another quarrel, I stayed silent.

After breakfast, I walked to the living room and waited for Severus to be done cleaning the table.

A moment later he came in and sighed in frustration. "Don't look at me like that." he snarled. Me, confused- cause I had no idea where he was talking about, since there hadn't been a special emotion on my face- about his remark, looked at him with a bewildered look. "Don't act like you don't know." he snarled in response. "But I'm not doing anything!" I exclaimed, still confused. Severus sighed in frustration again and bit some nasty remarks away by doing so. He looked at the wall, then to the ground, then back at me. Some frustration had disappeared. However, there was still enough left.

"Well, shall we go downstairs?" he asked more calmly now. However, his tone was still suspicious to me. I nodded.

He got his wand out of his pocket and touched several books- the ones in the case- with it. It looked like he used some kind if code to open the door, but nothing happened for a while, just like before. I suddenly heard noises coming from the bookcase. I startled and slowly moved backwards. The bookcase started to move and opened like a door to reveal the stairway behind it.

Severus walked downstairs first and lighted up the chandeliers, which were filled with candles. Strange, but this time I stepped into his basement, it felt creepier. A feeling like I was entering a dungeon. I got scary feelings about this.

As I walked down the stairs, I noticed a cauldron- with a small fire underneath it- on one of the tables. It had some purple brew into it. Small bubbles reached the surface on a nicely sounding rhythm. The brew had no strong smell or anything of which I could get a bad feeling, but it still happened. Seeing the weird looking brew made me wary. Where was it for? What was he going to do with it?

Severus immediately walked over to the cauldron and looked at the brew. He seemed pleased. I paced over to stand next to him and looked at it too. I didn't know what to see, so looked at Severus instead.

"I have made this potion yesterday evening." he stated slowly which made the ominous feeling inside me grew stronger. "This is a Bolbozar potion. This potions reveals if two people are related to each other."

I nodded. I knew where this was going to. Today was the day he was finally going to test if I was indeed his. I had no doubts and certainly not after meeting him and seeing our resemblance. However, he had his doubts, so proving it to him could maybe bring us more together.

"To see how the two people are related, someone has to look at the colour of the brew after one hour of putting the hair in." "Hair?" I asked confused. He turned his head to me with a frown on his pale face. "Of course. How else can the potions know who it has to relate?" he asked rhetorically with a clearly irritated voice. I could imagine why his students didn't like him that much if he was like this during all of his lessons.

In response to his remark, I simply shrugged. "How could I know? It's magic, anything can happen." I got an angry scowl for that remark in return.

"Do you think this is funny?" he asked agitated. "No, I don't. I honestly don't know." I replied on a normal tone. Severus narrowed his eyes and ignored the comment.

"I want to test if and if we are, how we are related." He looked at me, expectantly. "And I think you also want to know." he added. I shrugged. "I already know I am, so this is more for you I think." He frowned at this. "And how comes you are so sure?" he asked, very frustrated now. "Because of my mom's letter and because of our resemblance." I stated to defend myself. "Oh, and you just believe her word?" "Yes." I bravely replied. He narrowed his eyes and looked impendingly at me with his dark eyes. Didn't he like my answers our the bravery? Probably both.

"You shouldn't believe anything people write." he stated calmly, but still agitated.

His remark made my blood boil. My mom wasn't just anyone! She had been the best mother in the world and what gave him the right to talk about her that way!?

"But my mom isn't just anyone!" I exclaimed. "And what do you think is the reason why she would lie!?" I yelled at him. "Don't yell at me." he stated strictly. "Or what!? Are you gonna leave me!? Just like you did to me mom!?"

He seemed shocked and surprised for a moment. However, the moment had been short, cause he inhaled deeply through his nose and gave me the most disgusted look I had ever seen in my entire life.

"Don't you dare to say that to me!" he shouted fiercely. "Am I lying than!?" Surprised by that, he stayed silent for a second and bowed his head to the ground. He sighed to calm down a bit and then said: "I left her indeed." "Because she was less than you, huh!? Because you thought she was below your status as a wizard!" I yelled at him. My anger had not reduced. It was even burning harder than ever.

The anger in Severus' eyes seemed to return. He straightened his back a bit more- to look taller like all men do when they want to look threatening- and looked taller than ever. Only his length already seemed frightening to me. "Because she was, Ellea!" Him, saying my name in that malicious tone of his made me even angrier about his answer. Did he really think she had been less!? Did that mean that I was less too!?

My blood boiled as it had never done it before. My mom wasn't less than him or anyone!

On that moment, Three jars in one of the closets exploded at the same time. Strange looking parts of plants and remnants of nuts flew through the basement. Me and Severus both startled and crouched to the floor.

Severus stood up and looked at the mess.

"What the hell do you think you are doing!?" he yelled. "I didn't do anything!" I exclaimed. Severus narrowed his eyes. "So, that happened out of the sudden, without your help!?" "Indeed." Severus growled and wanted to yell further about the mess, but I yelled: "Because she was a squib and you are not, right!? That's why you dumped her!" I wanted to know the truth and would certainly get it. Some exploded jars couldn't stop me from that.

Severus looked surprised and confused at the same time. He seemed to bit some words away and exhaled through his nose.

"Indeed." he stated more calmly now. "You are on hell of a disgusting man, Severus Snape!" I yelled at him. " He narrowed his eyes and teased: "why don't you just say father if you are so sure about it?" My time had come to scowl at him. He was a bit right though. However, I just didn't feel like calling him that way. He had to respect that, but he was certainly not doing that.

Severus sighed to reduce his anger and took a short moment to get himself back together as he saw I wasn't going to answer his question. I did the same as him, trying to reduce me anger.

"And how do you know all of this anyway?" he snarled out of the sudden, clearly not over his anger yet. "My mom's letter." I stated more calmly. Severus let out a derogatory laugh. "So your mother wrote everything about me and herself in a letter to you, a child, and than I am the disgusting one?" I frowned. "Yes, cause you are just one hell of a racist!" I exclaimed. "That's just how the laws are, Ellea." "So you want to tell me that the complete Wizarding World is filled with racists!?" "Well, kind of yes." I rolled my eyes.

"I don't believe a thing of that. You just say that to justify your bad actions!" "The only 'bad actions' were ever falling in love and having sex with your mother."

I was surprised by his declaration, even though I had kind of expected it. Still, I had not expected him to tell me this that harshly In my face. Of course he had never wanted me. I was only a burden to him. How could I have been so blind to not notice?

"So, I am a mistake?" I asked him softly, kind of hoping he would still say his last statement had been a fault, that he had not meant it that way. And even though he seemed to recognise that his statement had been a fault for a moment, he said: "It had never been my intention to make your mother pregnant." "That's the bloody same thing!" Severus didn't react on that. Instead, he looked at the cauldron.

"You have never wanted me, have you? That moment you saw me for the first time, you were just hoping I wasn't yours, weren't you?" I asked him sadly. He turned his head to me and frowned, not an angry one, rather one I couldn't identify.

The man clearly contemplated what to say. The answer seemed to be just as important for him as it was for me. By his contemplating, I already knew the answer.

"I had never expected you, to come and tell me you are my child." he stated calmly and stared to the cauldron again. "That's not an answer to my question." I stated as calmly as he was. He scowled at me.

"Do you remember that one of my house rules is that you should not act like a smartass!" "I am not! I have the right to know how you think about me." I stated. He produced that same derogatory laugh as before and stared at me.

"Let's first find out if you are indeed mine." He swung his arm towards the cauldron to indicate we still had to test it. He still wanted to test it. I didn't. I had made up my mind. I didn't want him to be my father. He was a filthy swine! Speaking nothing but bad about my mother! How dared he!

"I don't think that's needed anymore." I stated. Severus raised his eyebrows and asked agitatedly: "is that so? And why if I might ask?" "Because you don't want me anyway, so why taking the effort to test it." I snarled. Severus scowled again, but didn't know what to say.

"Cause if you are indeed mine, as you claim, than you are going to live under my guardianship." "So you want that?" I asked incredulously.

Severus didn't react to that. Instead, he gave a quick look at the cauldron and asked teasingly: "I think that's the task of a father, isn't it?" It hadn't been really a question. He already knew the answer and was certainly not hoping for me to answer it.

"But you don't want to be one. Than why can't I just leave now?" Severus sighed in frustration at this. "Do you ever listen? I have just told you why." he snarled. I simply nodded. He was right about this point. The only point.

It was silent for a moment. We both stared to the ground and seemed to enjoy the silence, so we could both reduce ourselves from our anger.

Severus interrupted the silence with: "we both need to put a hair into it." I looked up and nodded. I was still reluctant to do so, but wanted to do it anyway. Not for him, but for myself. I had some doubts for myself too. Cause of course. Severus had been a bit right. I had just believed my mom's words and words are just words, but why would she ever lie? And every other information in the letter had been right already, so why the worries?

I walked over to the cauldron and looked into the purple brew. It looked disgusting and I pulled up my nose to express my feelings about it. I looked up at Severus, who gave me an approving nod.

I pulled out a hair from my head, which didn't hurt that much, and put the hair into the brew. The hair landed on the surface and immediately sank into the strange liquid. The hair had disappeared.

I looked up at Severus again, who gave me another approving look. I walked away from the cauldron, to the side of the table.

Severus' turn. He walked towards the cauldron and stared into the brew. He sighed and quickly pulled out a hair and put it into the cauldron. He looked into it again and looked rather pleased now.

He stepped aside and leaned onto the table with his hands. I stood on the other side of the table, opposite to him. The cauldron to my right was still boiling on the small fire.

Severus raised his head and inhaled deeply through his nose. He gave quick look at the cauldron and then turned his full attention back to me. "And now we simply have to wait."

**Author's Note:**

**Hey reader!**

**Ellea found out how Snape thinks about her, but what will she do with all that information? And is she actually his daughter? Or isn't she? Read next weeks' chapter to find out.**

**See you next week!**


	18. The results are in

Waiting. Waiting always feels like a very long time, but when there's nothing to do in a basement with a person you dislike for his believes, believe me, than it feels like an eternity.

Severus just stood there, at the side of the table, looking at the boiling brew. He seemed to be in reverie and I wondered where he was exactly thinking about. I could guess the bigger subject, our argument of course, but was he thinking of changing his disgusting believes into better ones? Probably not.

I stood there too, at the other side of the table, staring at some ingredients on shelves. I wondered who of us was going to clean up the mess on the ground. I turned my head to the mess and saw all the glass and remnants of plants and nuts. I hoped he would just flick his wand, cause cleaning this would take quite some time.

Severus had followed my gaze and stared at the mess too.

"That was a strong detonation." he stated softly with his monotonous voice. I looked at him. He looked back with his dark eyes. His anger had completely vanished, or that's how it seemed. Severus' body language was difficult to read.

"It was not my intention to blow them up." I told him. He kept staring at me with that empty face of his. He had clearly no idea what to do. Me neither.

"I know it wasn't." he said. "because you would have never been capable of doing it if you wanted to." He looked away, to the mess on the ground. I kept staring at him. His face had been a bit red of the yelling he had done previously. Now, it got his pale colour back.

Severus got his wand out of his pocket and waved it with a strong move. The mess piled up and levitated towards the trash bin in the corner. Even though I had seen him do those things before, I was still excited and amazed by the sight. I knew Severus hated that, so I kept the level of emotions low and just looked at how the pile dropped itself into the bin.

Severus slowly put his wand back into his pocket and turned back over to me.

"Not amazed I hope?" he asked on a normal tone. "No." I simply lied. He seemed to believe it and slightly nodded. He seemed genuinely pleased. "Good. Being amazed at the sight of magic isn't a good thing in the Wizarding World. Makes you look like a fool. And me too if you decide to do so." I frowned at that. He had probably said to me to not be amazed to not look silly in front of his friends. Even though I had wanted to tell him that, we had just had a quarrel and having another one, even though I was right in my opinion, wasn't good for the both of us.

Severus looked at the cauldron. The brew still looked the same.

He sighed and made himself ready to leave the basement. He passed me and walked up the stairs without looking back. I just looked at him and stayed in the basement, not completely sure if I had to follow him.

"Are you still coming? I don't want you to stay down there without me." he said loudly from the doorway upstairs he was standing in. "Uh, yeah." I said and walked over to the stairs. I looked over my shoulder to look at the brew one more time. I knew he was my father. Cause why would my mom lie about it? But still I had some doubts. It made me tensed. What would happen to me if he wasn't?

I walked upstairs and passed Severus in the doorway. He closed the closet-door after me and checked if it was really closed, just to be sure. He turned around to face me. His face was empty. Nothing to read. No body language. Sometimes he had that. A difficult man to read. "He must have a lot of secrets." I imagined. "Why else would he act that way? What kind of secrets does he hide?"

"Tea?" Severus suggested. "Good idea." I sighed with a small smile. Severus slightly nodded and headed off towards the kitchen.

I seated myself on the couch and looked out of the window. It was raining outside. "Very appropriate for this situation." I thought.

I was still staring through the window, but I wasn't really looking. I was lost in my reverie about the brew. The outcome of it could change everything from now on, even though it had only two possibilities, I was his or I wasn't.

If I wasn't, would Severus kick me out of his house? Probably. Cause why would he let me live in his house if I wasn't? But what would happen after that? Orphanage? Probably. There was no family besides my possible father… Well, my mom had family in the Wizarding World, but she had told me not to go there. They had been terrible people and probably still were. It was better to not go and look for them.

Severus got back with a tray. On it, a teapot and two cups. The tinkling of the cups against each other pulled me out of my reverie. I slightly shook my head and was back in reality again.

Severus had noticed it, like he always noticed things, and looked at me with raised eyebrows.

"Did I pull you out of your thoughts?" he asked with a polite voice. I slightly nodded and actually did not want to go further into the subject. Severus seemed to understand the gesture, or he just didn't feel like asking about it anyway, cause he didn't ask more about it. He seated himself in his armchair instead.

He poured the both of us a cup of tea and got one of the cups to lean back in his chair thereafter. He seemed a bit nervous and clearly tried to calm himself down with the warm cup in his hands.

"Are you nervous about the outcome?" I asked him on a normal tone. My remark was not meant to let the quarrel rise again. I really wanted to prevent that from happening. I just wanted to share my doubts too and ask him about how he saw the future if I indeed wasn't his.

Severus frowned at first, then I got an irritated scowl.

"Are you sure you want to start it again?" he inquired fiercely. I startled and widened my eyes. I had not meant to do that and was not completely ready for another quarrel.

"No, no, not at al." I stammered. "I am genuinely interested. Well, I mean… Uhm…" I did not really have a great answer yet. I was still trying to find a good one as he asked: "Interested? If you don't want to start the quarrel all over again, than why do you ask it?" "Well…" I sighed. I decided to just ask him straight forward. Maybe that would help.

"I want to know how you see the future if I am not your daughter." I stated coldly. The wizard in front of me raised his eyebrows at my remark. "Why the sudden change of thinking, Ellea? I thought you were so sure you were indeed mine?" he teased, although I got the idea he truly wanted to know it.

"Because you were right about my mom's letter. It's just a letter. Just words. Even though I could not come up with a reason why she would make it all up." I admitted. Severus seemed surprised and raised his eyebrows again. "Maybe because we, you and me, are both capable of doing magic. I know how to handle it. I know all about the Wizarding World. Underneath my guardianship you could grow into the Wizarding Community, at least more than your mother back in her days and more than you could on your own." his voice had been normal through his possible explanation. He truly wanted to talk about it with me. Without yelling, without insulting each other. Maybe he had realised too that yelling wasn't the way of solving this.

"That is possible. But we have a lot of similarities." "Children come in all shapes and sizes. You possibly have those body features from a relative." he tried to settle it with a quick explanation. I had no relatives with black hair and/ or a pale face, but I nodded to not end up in another quarrel about it.

"But to get back to my question, if you are not my father, what is going to happen then?" I inquired. Severus eyes shifted away towards the window. He had thought for a brief moment before he said: "I have to ask Dumbledore." I tilted my head at that. "Oh, come on. You told me you didn't believe I was yours, so you must have thought about this." Severus frowned. He must have felt busted, cause he sighed and turned his head towards the window. "I think you will go to a relative." he said. "I don't have other family besides… well… maybe you."

Severus turned his head back to me and frowned. "Don't lie to me, Ellea. I don't accept that." I stared at the ground and doubted if I had to tell him about my mother's family in the Wizarding World. He probably already knew it.

"Your father certainly has family in the Muggle World…" "All dead." I interrupted him. He stared at me with a vacant expression on his face and seemed surprised to hear that. He had all right to be. It wasn't a common thing to have no family at one side of it at all.

"… and your mother has some family in the Wizarding World." he continued slowly. I shrugged. I know she has some. She wrote about it in her letter. But she also wrote they were bad people and that I should better not go and look for them. Severus seemed to get interested and asked: "and why are they 'bad'?" "Because they have outcasted my mother because she was a squib." I wanted to add 'but you will only agree with them, don't you?' ,but I decided not to. We were heading somewhere and blowing that now would be a waste.

"I think she was afraid they would treat me the same as they had treated her, because I am the daughter of a squib." I explained. Severus nodded and said: "could be." He took a sip of his tea and asked: "she didn't placed that in the letter?" "No." "And anything about other family?" "No."

Severus narrowed his lips, which indicated he was thinking. After a sip of tea he said: "maybe you should just give it a shot." I looked at the ground and wasn't into his idea. My mom hadn't placed her displease about meeting her family in her letter for nothing.

Severus had noticed my dismay and said strictly: "I think it's that or an orphanage, Ellea." I looked up at him and stared into his dark eyes. They were cold. I had kind of hoped he would say that even in the case I wasn't his I could stay in his house. Even though he was a racist, a jerk and close-tongued about feelings, he was still better than my mother's family and better than an orphanage. But he didn't offer it. He proved once again he did not wanted me around and just hoped I would leave his house.

"And what if I am your child?" I asked him softly, afraid he would get angry again, but I just had to ask him. He frowned I response, which proved once again he preferred the other outcome. He took a sip of his tea and said: "well, then I need to take you to Diagon Alley for some new clothes. I have noticed you walk around in the same muggle clothes every day." He looked at me from head to toe to indicate it. I looked at my clothes too and noticed he was right. They had become a bit dirty. I had only packed a few garments the day I also got my owl Rowan.

I assumed Diagon Alley to be a shopping street in Cokeworth, so I didn't ask any further.

"You should drink tea when it's hot, you know." Severus commented agitatedly. "If I wait long enough then it will turn into ice tea." I joked to make the ambiance feel happier. Severus frowned at my joke and clearly disliked it. Not the man for jokes, I had forgotten. I got my tea cup and just started drinking it.

When we had finished our tea, Severus looked at the clock.

"I think the brew is done by now, so let's have a look." he stated as he walked towards the closet-door. He opened it as always and walked down the stairs. I followed him.

Severus immediately walked over to the brew and looked at its colour. The purple brew had turned into a green one. The liquid in the cauldron was still boiling like it had done before. The smell of it was disgusting.

Severus saw the colour right away. He startled and his face got paler at the second. By seeing this, I knew what the result was. I was kind of relieved. Relieved that I had not to go to my mom's bad relatives or an orphanage. On the other hand, Severus was clearly not happy with having me as his child. "That's gonna bring me a lot of trouble in the future." I imagined.

He stood there in front of the cauldron and stared at the brew, vacantly. It seemed like his spirit had abandoned his body and left an empty shell behind. His now even paler face contrasted more with his black hair than it had done before. He breathed heavily, like a horse and his eyes had widened. The outcome had shocked him more than I could have ever imagined.

I had waited just down the stairs and stared at his frankly empty body. The sight saddened me even though he should have suspected I had been right. The had had sex around the time I got conceived.

After a minute or so, Severus quickly turned around and grabbed a book from the shelve behind him. His sudden movement surprised me, not startle. Instead, it made me curious at what he was doing. He was quickly turning pages and seemed to be in a big hurry.

After a few seconds, he had found what he had been looking for, cause he stopped turning the pages and stroke with his finger from the left to the right side of the page. He was reading something out loud, cause his mouth slightly moved, but I couldn't hear what he said.

He quickly looked at the brew in the cauldron and back to the book. Brew, book, brew, book, brew, book. He did it multiple times and every time he did, he seemed to get more agitated.

Finally, Severus let out a loud angry growl and slammed the book shut. In a rage, he hurled it onto the table. The blow and his sudden rage startled me and out of instinct I stepped back to protect myself.

Severus had noticed my movement at looked at me with eyes full of anger and impotence. His hair was a bit messed up and partially hung in front of his eyes. He breathed heavily and got something of a beasty appearance. I stared back at him in amazement. He had always seemed like the man who could always keep his emotions under control, but now…

Severus dropped his head and made himself lean with his hands on the table in front of him.

"I am sorry for my rage. I just had… well… according to this brew…" he started softly, but couldn't finish the sentence. He sighed and turned his head away.

"I have made a mistake the brew isn't correctly brewed. I have been working on it since the day you came here. It's a complex potion and has a lot of steps, so I think…" "I am your daughter according to the brew, am I not?" I interrupted him, even though I already knew the answer. I just wanted to be sure about it.

Severus sighed again and turned his head back to me, still leaning against the table. "Yes, but I need to test it again." he replied softly. I frowned at his answer. He just couldn't accept I was his, so he came up with all kinds of lies to fool me and himself.

"Stop lying to yourself, Severus Snape. You are my father. The brew has proven it." I stated as nicely as I could. However, Severus was not having my nicely way of speaking.

"I tell you the brew wasn't right!" he exclaimed, still leaning against the table as if his legs would let him fall if he let go of the table.

"It is, Severus! You are the Potions Master at Hogwarts! You can't do this wrong!" I yelled back at him. "Making potions is your passion and talent."

He seemed so confused and helpless by knowing I was his after all. It had devastated him. Hs feelings made me feel bad about myself. As if I wasn't worth to be here with Severus. If he, my own biological father, would reject me, than who wouldn't?

Seeing him like this made me feel awfully too. We had both turned into wrecks of our own emotions.

"Severus, I…" "Shut up and go upstairs!" he yelled. Not afraid by his yelling, I tried it again.

"But I…" "What did I say!" he interrupted me again. "Shut up and go to your room!"

I knew I couldn't get through to him at this point, so did like he had said end left a devastated man behind in the basement.

I had expected it to feel better when I proved him I had been right all along, but instead it felt terrible. It had ripped Severus apart, because he had never wanted me to even exist and now suddenly had a child to take care of, one of which he sincerely believed all those time to not be his. And I felt also terrible about him not wanting me. I had so terribly hoped he, my biological father, had liked and loved me. How foolish of me.

I walked to up the stairs, to the first floor, and locked myself up in my room.

**Author's Note:**

**Hey reader!**

**So Ellea is his after all. Did you have any doubts? Well, Severus certainly had.**

**I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!**

**See you next week in a new year!**


	19. Talking is key

That had been so terrible. For the both of us.

Severus, my biological father, disliked my entire existence. Well, 'disliked' was maybe an understatement. Despised. Hated maybe. Those were better words to describe the situation. The man had wished so terribly I wasn't his. My own father had wished I had never existed. How sad was that.

It was sad indeed, but it rather made me angry at the moment. He had lost himself in his emotions after learning that his believes or hopes or maybe both were wrong. Maybe that was the sad thing. An adult man, who always tried to keep himself cool under any circumstances, losing himself like that. Arrogant, he was too. Always looking down at me for not having as much knowledge as he had. Pathetic was maybe the right word to describe his behaviour.

I looked up at the ceiling. While lying on the blankets of my bed, I stared at the white ceiling with that old white, round lamp hanging on it. Yes, it was old, but it fitted in the room and Severus as the person he was or at least showed to me. The man was hard to fathom. I wondered where that had been coming from. His childhood? A family trait? Or had he just always been that way, from the day he was born? Probably all of them.

I sighed and thought about the situation a bit more.

Maybe I was a bit too hard on him. Hearing you have a daughter you have never known the existence of is quite a thing. And everyone has an outburst at some point if we push all of our emotions away.

However, he could have accepted it from the day he met me. Of course he had the right to doubt about it, but come on, we look awfully the same in appearance. The greasy black hair, the pale face, a slender body.

I looked down at my belly and nodded. Yeah, I was slender.

Severus could have predicted it, right? Even by the appearance only. And then my mom's letter. And the comparison of the date I was conceived and the date I was born. A lot of evidence I would say.

No, I had made my decision. He should have never said he had never wished for me to exist. Even though I had always known that, just by the way he was acting, but I had never wanted to acknowledge it. I had desperately longed for someone I could rely on after the death of my parents and there had he been, my true biological father. I had been blinded by my luck. An escape from an orphanage. Family.

I had been foolish.

I had forced him to take me in by writing that letter to Dumbledore. I had realised back then that that had been the only solution for not going to an orphanage, but was not going to an orphanage really the best outcome? Now, I was here, in the house of my biological father, who had never wanted me and still didn't want me. The future for our father/daughter relationship didn't seem that bright as I had hoped for. Maybe I would have been happier in an orphanage. At least Severus would have definitely been.

Although I was thinking about the different outcomes my future could have gotten, I knew that I had already chosen mine by taking the decisions I had taken in the past.

Severus had said it himself. "Cause if you are indeed mine, as you claim, than you are going to live under my guardianship. I think that's the task of a father, isn't it?" A quote from Severus Snape himself.

The man had already decided before the testing he would give me a home if I was indeed his after all. Not out of love for me, but presumably out of decency. Decency towards himself. The decency to acknowledge his mistake, me, and take care of the consequences, raising me. Unbelievable that a man can be such a swine!

I sighed, cause this was the situation I had to deal with and I just had to make the best out of it.

I turned my head and looked out of the window. The grey houses. The sad grey houses. I smiled in a cynical way. The view was just very appropriate for the current situation.

At that moment, I heard footsteps on the stairs. I frowned and looked with an angry frown at my bedroom door. I took a sitting position on my bed and waited for what was coming.

The door slowly opened and revealed Severus standing in the doorway. His face looked empty. At that moment, I didn't know what to expect. Was he going to be angry with me again? Or did he want to apologize? Probably not the last one. He wasn't the type for doing that.

We had stared at each other for some time before he said with his monotonous voice, which only he could do: "Ellea, we have to talk."

The shivers ran down my spine at that statement. It had sounded so threatening and friendly at the same time. Maybe that was the thing that had scared me. The fact that everything could happen at the moment was frightening.

He gazed at me with an expecting look. I didn't know what to do, so I just stared back.

"Can I come in and sit with you?" he asked calmly. I became a bit suspicious. His behaviour was strange. A bit too calmly. However, I nodded in response and he seated himself on the end of the bed.

Now, we were seated opposite to each other. He on the end, I on my pillow. The back of his legs pressed against the wooden frame of the bed. I noticed he was a bit tensed, just like me, cause he stared down at the blanket and didn't start talking- it was his idea to talk after all-, so I had to do it. Otherwise there would presumably be no talking at all and he was right about us needing to talk.

"Well, I think I know where you want to talk about." I stated softly. Severus didn't look up, but just nodded with his head bent. He pressed his lips together and seemed to gather all the courage he could find in himself to start talking too.

"You should know that I was… well… ehm… surprised by the results and that I have acted in an unacceptable way." he admitted. I was a bit surprised myself he wanted to admit so little. He just wasn't the man to do so, I guessed. He just wasn't the type for it.

"Some of what I have said downstairs came out a bit harshly." he said, while still staring down at the blanket. "I should… we should have talked in a normal way." I raised my eyebrows at his statements. It meant that he only regretted the way he had told me the information, not about the information itself. It meant that everything he had said, had been no other than the truth. I had to suppress a tear.

"You say that you regret the way you spoke and not what. The information was clear. I only want to know how you truly see the future from here." I stated coldly. He looked up at me with a rather surprised look on his face, but that disappeared very soon.

"Well, I would like to clear up some things first." "We think differently about a lot of things. I don't want to and up in another quarrel." I stated just as coldly as before. Severus sighed agitatedly.

"I only want to tell you this and what you do with it is your business, Ellea!" he stated fiercely. "It won't be a conversation, cause I don't want you to react on what I am going to tell you! I will just leave the room afterwards." Severus sighed to reduce his anger. "We will talk about the future at supper." He gave me an expecting look. I simply nodded.

Severus nodded too and said: "Good… well…" he began uneasily. "Your mother and I had a short time relationship. We have never discussed marriage, nor have we ever talked about getting children, so I can imagine that being pregnant was a big surprise for your mother." He took a big breath and wanted to go on talking, but suddenly he seemed to have a lump in his throat and he stopped talking. He looked down at the blankets and I couldn't stop wondering where this was going to. He swallowed the lump away and resumed talking.

"So what I said about me never wanting you is… kind of right." he explained softly. I frowned and stared down at the blankets too. He noticed it and tried to make it up with: "but it's not completely how you think." I frowned deeper and looked up at him. His face had turned into a tensed one. His dark eyes said noting, as always. They were cold and seemed to penetrate me, as always.

"I have indeed never had the desire to become a father, so suddenly becoming one is a bit of a shock." he explained. I had to give him that one. I knew of the shock it had given him and I could sympathize. And that he had never had the desire to become a father had been obvious, so nothing new.

"You should know that now I know for sure you're mine, you can stay here." he said. "I am indeed your father, so will be your guardian and caretaker." I frowned at that.

"You do it out of decency, don't you?" I asked him monotonously. He looked up at me, bewildered. "I beg your pardon?" he asked, clearly confused. "You don't do it for me, but because you think that's the right way of dealing with your mistake, me. I'm your mistake. You have said it yourself down in the basement." Severus looked bewildered, maybe even a bit busted, but that was hard to tell by only getting to see his daily emotionless façade.

"I had said no comment!" Severus snarled. I straightened my back and made my confidence clear to him. I wasn't afraid of him. Although that was strange, cause he was way taller, stronger and older than me and to not even mention his ability to do magic.

"And I have asked a question." I stated bravely. Well, maybe bravely, but also foolish, since this only made the anger in his body rise up again. His eyes widened in stupefaction and his scowl became angrier by the second.

"How dare you to be brutal to me!" he exclaimed. "Cause I need answers! True answers to my questions!" I shouted back at him. Severus seemed confused about that and his scowl softened. He looked down at the blanket and sighed to reduce his anger.

"I need to know where I am at this point and the only thing you do is turning my questions down. I know that I do not always ask them in the right way, but that's because I am emotional too." I explained softly. I had wanted to add his name after the sentence, to make it feel more personal to him, but I had not known how to call him at this point. Severus? Just Snape? Father? No, not that, definitely not that. Neither of us would feel comfortable with that, I knew for sure.

Severus' anger had reduced mostly and he was even looking at me. That gave me the confirmation that I was making my message clear in the right way.

"Of course I am emotional about this too. Did you think that have always been okay with this? Of course I wasn't. I was devastated when I read my mom's letter for the first time. I found out that the man of whom I had always thought to be my father actually wasn't my biological father. That was pretty shocking, you know?" Severus nodded and said: "of course you were. I have never thought you weren't."

"All of this…" I sighed, but couldn't find the right words to finish it. "I still have troubles with the thought. And that's not your fault, it's on my part. Just like your emotions aren't my fault." Severus let out a sceptical laugh at that. "Well, I think that lies a bit more complicated." "And how so?" I asked him on a normal tone. Severus shook his head and said: "You started all of this with writing that letter to Dumbledore. You have started my emotions about this. You have reacted on my emotions at your turn and that's how the arguments came to exist. But don't worry. Someone of your age doesn't have to understand that." I raised my eyebrows at that one. I knew by his tone he hadn't meant it in a wrong way, but it just came out so rude. I wondered if he was like that to everyone.

I sighed. "Well, if you want to play it like that." Severus frowned, but didn't stop me from talking.

"YOU have actually all started this with hooking up with my mother and conceiving me. And then later on by not opening the letters in which she told YOU, YOU had made her pregnant." I stated arrogantly, cause I knew I was right. Severus sighed and frowned a bit, all while looking at me with those dark eyes of him.

"You are a true Slytherin at times, do you know that?" I frowned, thinking 'Slytherin' to be an insult.

"I have no idea what that insult means, but don't even try to change the subject." I stated strictly. Severus frowned an rolled his eyes at the same time. "It's not an insult, you know! It's rather a compliment. It means that your cunning, resourceful and ambitious, the main characteristics of a Slytherin." he explained agitatedly.

"Don't change the subject! I want answers to my questions to end all the quarrels." I stated, still as strictly as I had been. Severus frowned and nodded at the same time. "Yes, you are right. We have to talk. I only wanted to explain something, since you completely got the meaning of the word wrong." I frowned, but decided to just let it be.

Severus looked at the clock. Time for supper.

"I came here to talk about all that has happened down there in the basement, but it seems like we have to do most of it during supper."

"We both need to know where we are right now and how the future will look for the both of us." He gave me an attentive look.

"I need you for that too, Ellea." he stated as if the world depended on it.

"I am the adult and I make the decisions in the end, yes. But we both have to live with those decisions, so I think knowing about your opinion isn't a wrong thing." I nodded. "Cause I think that when I take a decision for you, you completely don't agree with, you will make my life a living hell." I thought he had meant it as a joke, so I smiled, but when I saw him, not smiling at all, I immediately stopped. He had meant it terribly serious.

"And don't get me wrong, cause if you make a decision I don't agree with, I can make yours even worse." He gave me a serious look and I slightly started to become scarred of him.

"But we both won't have a nice time if we start doing that, so I think that talking, at least at this point, is key." I nodded in response and was pleased with his conclusion to say the slightest.

Severus nodded too and asked: "Time for supper then?" He showed with that remark he was done talking and his tone revealed he was pleased with the results. I smiled to show him I agreed.

**Author's Note:**

**Hey reader!**

**Would talking really be the key to success for their father/daughter relationship? Or will it only create more quarrels? Read next weeks' chapter to find out.**

**See you next week!**


	20. Future

"I'm going to cook, so I will see you later." he shortly said while walking down the stairs. I walked behind him and stopped in the living room, he headed directly for the kitchen and disappeared into it.

I was kind of surprised by his actions, cause we had just had a pretty emotional conversation. I expected him to be more open, but he closed himself off instead. He was introvert, very introvert so to speak and talking about emotions wasn't really his thing. In the beginning I thought it was a typical man thing. Most man don't like talking about their feelings, but Severus was one step worse. Well, worse? Was it really a worse thing? Maybe for now it was, but not for in daily life I supposed.

I started to know Severus more and more, even though his well-kept façade of showing no emotions except anger and/or frustration. He presumed a lot of people hadn't come that far as I had come in all this time with him. I saw him at home, his safe place. I saw his daily routine. I had seen photo's he had kept away on the attic, his past- or at least a snap of his early years. I wanted to know more about it, but I supposed he would get agitated if I did so, so I decided not to.-. I presumed I was the only one who had seen all of that in years. But at the end, they were all assumptions.

Sounds of pots and pans came from the kitchen which meant that Severus had already started. I got myself about potions and dropped myself in an armchair.

I didn't really get the book, cause I had no idea what it meant with most of the ingredients were, so reading how to prepare it was useless. However, reading about the purpose and qualities of the potions was quite interesting. For as long as I knew, magic had no boundaries. Anything was possible with the right material. Scary in the hands of people who wanted to do harm, I supposed, but marvellous for everyone else.

After some time, Severus said loudly from the kitchen: "it's done." His movements- which made some noise- distracted me from the book and I looked up. I placed the book back on the shelve and walked into the kitchen.

Severus had already set the table, like usually, and sat on his chair across the table. I did the same and seated myself on mine and looked at the three pans in front of me. One was filled with two big chicken drumsticks, the other two had the lids still on them.

"You are allowed to get one." Severus said, while gesturing with a wave of his hands to the chicken drumsticks. I nodded and reached out my hand to get one.

"What do you think you're doing?" Severus snarled out of the sudden, my hand half way towards the chicken. I stopped moving my arm and looked up at him with a confused face. I had no idea what I was doing wrong at this point.

"Getting a chicken drumstick, like you said." I replied on a normal tone and moved my hand further towards the chicken. "Stop!" he said agitatedly. I stopped again and retreated my hand, on which he seemed to become relieved.

Severus narrowed his eyes and gazed at me, then at the chicken, then back at me.

I was confused and wondered why he had become so frustrated by me doing what he had said.

"Could you behave decent, at least during supper?" he asked, still frustrated. I had no idea where he was talking about. I had behaved decent, what was he saying!?

I frowned and said straight up what I thought.

"I behave decent, so I have no idea where you were talking about." I snarled in return. He rolled his eyes and looked at the chicken, then at me. "Get it out of the pan with your cutlery. That would be decent. A person doesn't get a piece of chicken with her hands and certainly not a woman." I sighed in frustration -cause how could someone get himself that agitated about getting a chicken drumstick with her bare hands? Let's say he was a remarkable person, his bad and good sides, all remarkable- and rolled with my eyes.

"Well okay, if you want I grab it with my cutlery. Fine." I grabbed my knife at fork, lifted one of the drumsticks out of the pan and placed it on my plate. I looked at Severus for a confirmation of my doing and he nodded. He did the same and got himself a drumstick.

He opened the two other pans, with which he revealed boiled potatoes in one and cauliflower in the other.

He nodded with his head towards the pans, a gesture for me to take some food first. I got a big spoon and put some food on my plate. The food looked good, like it had done all the previous times. He was just very good at cooking. Maybe I had to crib once when he was cooking to learn it too. Or I could grab a book. The last one was probably better.

"It looks really good." I complimented him. He seemed to not handle the compliment very good, cause it took him some time to simply thank me for it with a soft and low-pitched 'thank you'.

We started of eating in silence, which was uncomfortable since our plan was to talk, but neither of us started off. I had no idea how- at least not in a way we would not get another quarrel- and Severus apparently neither until the moment he began speaking.

"The future…" he started, but kept himself from ending the sentence. He had made the word 'future' a bit longer to indicate he only wanted to bring up the main topic. His gaze towards me was an expecting on. I simply nodded in response and waited for him to go on.

"well, ehm, like I said upstairs, you can stay here and come and live with me here." he hesitated to continue and was in debate whether he should say. "Well, maybe not here, but I still need to think over some things." he added. I bit on my lip in confusion, which he of course noticed.

"I mean that I am a teacher at Hogwarts, a boarding school, so that means that I normally live there. I'm only here during the holidays, so I need to figure out how to do that, since you can't come with me." "Why not?" I inquired. "Cause you are too young to get lessons and I can't give the care of you to someone else at Hogwarts

I nodded. He was right. That wasn't an option. And giving up his job to take care of me felt not right.

I despised my age for at least this moment, but realised that I did it quite a lot. I wished I was older and more independent. Now I was always depent on adults who needed make most important decisions for me. Despicable. I was capable of making most decisions on my own, or at least I thought. I just needed them for a house and food and many more things.

"But if you can't take me with you and, I think, you want to keep your job, how are you getting there every day? I guess it's far away, cause it took Rowan some time to get there and he is an owl." Severus nodded understandingly, but with a sense of irritation.

"Haven't I just told you I have to think." he snarled. I was surprised by his sudden hostility, but I knew he didn't meant it to attack me. He was just agitated, like he always was when we talked about us. He still wasn't comfortable with the thought of now having me and I doubted if he would ever become. But I couldn't let his comment pass that easily.

"Well, I'm sorry mister Potions Master. I was only trying to help figuring this out." I retorted contemptuously. The Potions Master himself frowned and narrowed his eyes in displease at my remark.

"Don't act this way, missy. Believe me if I say that I would have already given you detention if you were one of my students." he stated strictly. I staid silent and knew he meant I was walking on the border of his patience. Talking would only result in trouble whatever I said, so I decided not to. Severus seemed pleased with my decision and continued.

"I need to think everything through." he said, but rolled his eyes to the side, which gave me the indication he wasn't satisfied with statement. "At least more than I have already done." he grumbled in addition and seemed even more displeased with this sentence.

He seemed to have no idea on how to say what he wanted to say. However, I made no attempts by helping him. Was careful not to start another quarrel between the two of us. We had already had enough of those.

Severus slightly growled, but seemed to have finally found the words to continue. The growl gave me the feeling he wasn't completely content with the feeling.

"As I have already told you." he started off. "You can stay here to live. You will not come with me to Hogwarts, but I am not even sure if I can go back to there, since I have to take care of you." His voice had deepened and gone more serious as ever. His displeasure about it was great, but I wondered what he had actually meant. The care of me? Or not going back to Hogwarts. I knew for sure the first one, but was the second one also possible? The both of them at the same time? He lost his job thanks to me actually, so I could imagine it being the truth.

"I think I need to find another job then." he stated, trying to stay cool, but I had clearly sensed a sad feeling inside of him. Was he so attached to his work? Probably so. Why else would he so much care about getting another one?

"Or you go to a babysitter when I'm off at Hogwarts." he suggested a bit happier. "A babysitter?" I exclaimed incredulously right after his suggestion. A babysitter!? What was that man thinking!?

He had noticed my indignation, so he said: "yes. Well, maybe that's not the right word." He tried to keep the idea a serious option I also agreed with. "I just mean someone who takes care of you when I'm gone." he added in an acted friendly way. He clearly wanted me to like the idea, and he was succeeding more and more, I had to admit, but the word 'babysitter' had just pissed me off. However, I knew that I couldn't live on my own- a ten year old after all- and that I needed someone else, an adult.

I was still thinking about it when Severus said: "well, it's just an idea." He waved the idea of with a movement of his hand and continued more seriously now.

"Well, how I see it for now is just like this. The two of us, here, in this house." He looked at me to see my reaction. I simply nodded and took a bite of a boiled potato.

"How I see the further future remains, like I said, a bit unknown. I still need to think things over to make the right decision for the both of us." I got another expecting look and just nodded again. My gesture seemed to please him, cause he nodded and took a bite of a piece of cauliflower.

I staid silent and thought about what he had said. I didn't like the fact he still wasn't sure about the course of the further future- since he had had enough time to think about it in my perception. I had not came here yesterday after all.-, but I had to admit that was happy with his idea of the nearby future. Staying here, in his house, wasn't one of the worst outcomes.

We had resumed supper in silence until Severus spoke again.

"And what is your idea of the future?" he asked. He seemed genuinely interested, so I took his question very seriously.

"I agree with your idea about the nearby future." I began. Now, it was my turn to give him an expecting look. It felt like I needed to know his reaction. And till my surprise, he gave me one. A slight nod to express his delight about my agreement.

"And about the further future…" I took a few seconds to decide how I was going to finfish that sentence well. "I don't know." I admitted. Severus raised his eyebrows in surprise. "I had forgotten about your job at a boarding school." I explained softly. Softly because I had gotten a bad feeling from his surprise about me.'

Severus just nodded and said: "I understand. I will think about what next." he said with enough, maybe too much, load of self-esteem. A bit annoyed by his sudden arrogance, I just nodded in response.

Severus nodded too, which indicated that the conversation had gotten a conclusion and that it was over now.

We resumed our meals again, in silence, but seemed to enjoy it more than ever. That had never occurred before, but I couldn't care. It felt nice, so why would I interrupt the great feeling with thought? Exactly. Not.

**Author's Note:**

**Hey reader!**

**Announcement:**

**I've got a Beta-Reader! Thanks to to2llyuntraceable for helping me.**

**See you next week!**


	21. A normal day at Spinner's End

The next morning, I woke up around eight o'clock.

Once downstairs, Severus had- just like he had done the past days- set the table.

"Good morning." I said politely.

He looked over his shoulder and said: "Good morning Ellea." His voice surprised me. He was in a good mood, or so it seemed. And him saying my name surprised me as well. Normally, he used it to describe his displeasure about me.

I began, "Mister Snape, I mean, Professor… Sir?"

"Call me Severus."

An awkward pause occurred.

"Well, let's eat breakfast." he said after a while, walking to his chair.

We needed something to talk about, or I felt like we needed it, so I asked him something I had wanted to asked him since I had met him.

"Could you teach me how to fly on a broomstick?"

He looked up from his breakfast and stared at me with his dark eyes.

"I need to think about that."

"Why do you need to think about it? Is it dangerous?"

"Yes, of course it is! Even more for a girl like yourself."

"What do you mean with 'a girl like yourself'?" I asked, a bit irritated due to his meaningless answers.

"I _mean_ that _You _have never seen someone fly on a broomstick before, so _you_ have no example you can imitate. I _mean_ that _you_ are raised by _muggles_. And children who are raised in muggle families normally have no natural talent for flying, since they are not raised with the idea of doing it and have never had an example. They need to practise a lot. I _mean_ that it is too dangerous for _you_ and _me_ to learn you how to fly in the Muggle World. They might never know about the existence of magic. And I _mean_ that it is too dangerous for _you_ to learn flying from me, cause I have never taught someone how to fly. So I _mean_ that it can kill _you_." His eyes were ever so dark, his eyebrows ever so low.

He saw the surprised look on my face. He must have realized I hadn't meant my questions badly, because his muscles relaxed and the scowl on his face disappeared.

"Okay." I simply said, but the disappointment in my voice was clear to him.

"You will learn it at Hogwarts later on." he added. I nodded.

We finished breakfast in silence. Severus cleaned up all the things with the help of his wand, while I searched for a new book in one of his bookcases.

I wanted a book about something else than the Dark Arts, potions or herbology. I wanted to know more about the Wizarding World. Especially about the magical way of living. I wondered if they had a government and about their head of state. Would they have a king, a queen or president? Or would they have no governance?

_I'm sure they have._ I thought.

I hadn't found a book about life in the Wizarding World on the first three shelves yet when Severus straightened his back in the kitchen doorpost and said: "don't you forget something?" I looked to the ground and tried to remember what it was, but I couldn't.

"Your chores?" he asked raising his eyebrows. "Oh, the owls." I said a bit louder than I had intended. "Yes, the owls. Those beasts need food, you know." he snarled. I felt a bit guilty about forgetting to it on the first day already.

I walked towards him and asked: "could you show me how to feed them?" "Yes, I can and I will." he replied politely, apparently changing his mood a 360 degrees.

He turned around and I followed him to the shed. He put his hand on the door handle, but didn't open it yet. Instead, he turned around to face me.

"Those animals need more than only food. You need to give them attention and appreciation, otherwise they won't listen to you anymore. Do you understand?"

I nodded..

"In this box, you can find the food." He pointed to the coffin on which Rowan was sitting. "Maybe you can tell him to get off the box, so I can show you." He looked at me, waiting for me to do so.

"Please get off the box Rowan." I said politely. Rowan flew off the coffin and out of the window. Severus looked in confusion at the same window, clearly not understanding what had just happened- even though he had asked me to do so. We were both confused now-.

"He really listens to you."

"Yes, he does."

"How did you train him to listen that well?" he asked curiously.

"I didn't train him. My mom did."

"How is it possible that he listens to you personally so well than?" he asked even more curiously.

I shrugged and said: "I have actually no idea."

"Strange." he stated and waved the topic off with both of his hands.

Severus opened the lid of the box. Inside were two small white, plastic boxes.

"Those boxes contain kibbles. You need to fill the food bowl till the edge with the food chucks. You must refill the food bowl once a day." He searched for an understanding look, as if he needed one before he could go on, as if I was retarded. However, since I wanted him to go on, I reluctantly nodded.

"The other bowl is for the water. You must change the water once a day." He looked at me to see if I understood. I nodded in response to confirm I understood.

"Are there more things I need to know?" I inquired.

"Actually, No. It's not that hard." he stated arrogantly.

"Oh, and before I forget to mention, Luka needs to get used to you before he listens to you, so don't expect he will listen as quickly as Rowan did." "Noted." I stated.

"Get to work," he ordered, "I'm going to read."

He walked back to the house and I started my chore. I did exactly like he had explained and refilled the food bowl. I got some water from the tap in the kitchen and when I filled the bowl. I wondered if taking care of owls was really that easy or if he was just testing me before showing the harder things. I hoped for the seconds, because this would be boring every day.

When I was done, I looked satisfied to the food bowl on the shelf and realized that this chore would be an easy-peasy thing to do every morning.

I walked back inside the house and saw Severus reading his newspaper.

The people on the front moved just like the other pictures on newspapers I had seen before. Still strange though.

The man on the front looked majestic. His long light hair was perfectly combed and no sign of dirtiness made itself clear. I started to feel jealous- like every girl I supposed-. My hair was never that well combed, no matter how hard I tried.

The man was wearing a sort of long black coat with black fur. His suit underneath the coat was black too. His black walking stick with a snake's head as a handle gleamed like just polished silver.

The man moved majestically. Looking at some men next to him. I could clearly see, he felt he was better than anyone else by the sneer on his face. So arrogant, so full of conceit. So disgusting, well to say.

I wondered who he was and why he was on the front page, so I asked Severus: "who's that man on the front page?"

Severus looked up from his paper and turned the newspaper. "That man with long white hair?"

"Yes."

"That's Lucius Malfoy."

"And why is he on the front page?" I asked curiously.

"Well why don't you read it yourself." He closed the newspaper and pointed it in my direction.

I took it from him, suspicious why he was so willingly to do so.

I began reading the article on the front page. The one about the photo. It said that a new wizard law had been accepted and that Mr. Malfoy had helped with the introduction of that law.

Severus came back to the living room with a tray with a teapot and two cups.

"No wonder it's him who helped the Ministry with that." he stated cynically while seating himself again.

"Why?" I immediately asked.

"Because he is a high placed man in the magical community."

"Because of his job of course."

Severus softly laughed. "No, no, not because of his job. He got the job because of all his money. His family is very wealthy. He makes a lot of donations to the Ministry very year. And that's why he is so important to the Ministry."

I frowned. I hated it if people got a special treatment because of their money.

Severus poured the both of us a cup of tea. I had to ask him another question.

"What about the photos? How can they move? What do you wizards do to make them move?" I asked way too curiously.

Severus rolled his eyes at that, as if it was a stupid question.

"Well, you take pictures and develop them," he explained as if it was the most normal thing ever.

I frowned at him. Why did he act so frustrated? He knew I was raised in in a world without magic. I wanted to learn everything about magic and fit in in his world, but it seemed like he didn't really care sometimes.

He raised a book to start reading, but I stopped him from doing that. "Why don't you want to tell me?" I inquired grumpy. He lowered his book again and looked at me without any form of emotion.

"I need to fit in into the Wizarding World remember?" It was meant as a rhetorical question, but he replied: "I do." His voice was still short of emotion.

"Are you going to tell me? I really want to know. I want to fit in your world, that will later become mine too." My voice became softer per word. I frowned at the end of my sentence. The angry frown had disappeared and a sad frown had made its entrance.

"I will." he said reluctantly and put his book besides him. "I had forgotten about your small knowledge of magic." he stated more derisively than he had intended to put in. "It has never been my job to learn muggle-borns about magic and the Wizarding World."

I nodded in response to his statement and said: "It's okay." His face still showed no emotion. It sometimes irritated me, but I couldn't care right now.

"Do you still want to know how the pictures are developed?" he asked hesitantly. "Yes, I would love that." I replied nicely.

"Well, the pictures are taken with a normal camera, but they are developed with a special potion. That potion is called: developing potion. That's what makes them move. I believe muggles do it differently, but in theory the potion would also work on muggle photo's."

"Do you make that potion too?" I asked curiously.

"Well, I can, but the potion can only develop photo's, so it hasn't really I purpose to me." he explained.

An uneasy pause occurred. We both felt it. It was quiet until Severus gestured to the tea. "I would drink your tea. Otherwise it gets cold." I let out a small smile, he didn't.

We both read further. He in his book- apparently about potions, cause that was what the cover said and something I expected from a Potions Master-.

I read about a wizard who was apparently a celebrity for writing books. However, I read more about a sport called: quidditch. I saw a moving picture of a few people flying on broomsticks high above the ground. I wanted to asked Severus about the sport, but hesitated because of the conversation we had had before.

After a while Severus asked: "It's time for lunch don't you think?"

I looked up from the newspaper and said, "yes, sure."

We walked into the kitchen and he waved his wand. The plates, the cups and all the other things flew out of the cupboards.

"Could you tell me more about quidditch?" I asked.

He looked at me, swallowed his food and said: "it's a sport for wizards."

"And what are the exact rules?"

"It's difficult to explain, but I am sure you will learn it soon enough on Hogwarts. Then it's easier to learn. You will see the field and so on."

"You just don't want me to fly on a broomstick, isn't it?" I asked teasingly.

"It's true I don't want you to fly on a broomstick right now. You just have to wait till you are old enough," he stated.

"Why don't you want to tell me?"

"Cause it's a stupid game and I don't want you to get involved in that."

"That's sweet." I said teasingly while smiling, but he frowned.

"And not because you don't want me to get hurt?" I asked him, still in a teasing mood. His frown became more tensed. He took a small pause to decide what to say to that.

"Both." he stated after his pause. I had to blush, even though I had already expected his answer.

"Thanks." I stated nicely. He just nodded.

"Thanks." I said again. That word made him confused.

"Why are you saying that again?"

"Cause I am thankful for everything you have already done for me." I felt kind of stupid while I said it. It made me look vulnerable and I never wanted to look vulnerable to others, even to the people I trusted the most.

"You're welcome." he responded hesitantly.

**Author's Note:**

**Hey reader!**

**Well, more original Harry Potter characters in this weeks' chapter. Lucius Malfoy and the writer (did you know who that was?). Maybe you will see more original characters in in future, but until then,**

**See you next week!**

**PS: special thanks to my Beta-Reader to2llyuntraceable.**


	22. The people of Diagon Alley

Chapter 22

The people of Diagon Alley

We had finished lunch and I sensed we both felt pleased about being done. The conversations hadn't been the best ones- although I had to admit that we had had worse-.

Severus cleared the table with a wave of his wand and I still longed for the day I was allowed to learn it. I knew he despised my amazement about magic, so I kept my profile low, like always. The feeling of amazement was short-lived, cause mind was too busy with wondering about something else this time. I wondered what magic could do more. I had already read a lot about it, so I knew some possibilities, but I wondered more about how it would look like. Purple lights coming from the wand? Possible, although I doubted that, cause I had read about it- or it was so normal that no one wrote it down-. Other colours? Possible too. Or would it look like the magic I had already seen? No lights or whatever. Just a movement with the wand and it happened. It was presumably that, just way more likely.

"Oh, I forgot to say," the wizard began as he headed towards the living room. "We are actually leaving now." I frowned in confusion and turned around in my chair. We leaving the house? That hadn't happened in a while- or maybe it seemed like that thanks to all the quarrels between us-.

Him forgetting to say something like that was a bit strange. Had learned to know him a bit in the short time with him and he wasn't the type to forget to mention plans like these. Where was he with his mind? Well, certainly not here. I supposed he had something on his mind and that something was probably the whole situation around me. I hoped he would ever become his own self again.

"And where are we going to?" I asked him, still filled with confusion. "Diagon Alley." he loudly answered from the living room. I shrugged and stood up from my chair.

"Go and get yourself ready." Severus said. "We are going to leave in any minute from now." I heard his footsteps on the stairs as I walked into the living room. I looked at the stairs, where I could only see Severus feet disappearing to upstairs.

I got my shoes, which I had placed in the corner besides his, and pulled them on along with my coat.

Severus came back down with a small, brown backpack in his hands. The bag was different from the one he had used when we went searching for ingredients in the woods nearby his house. Well, maybe also my house now.

Anyway, the bag looked a bit off and not like any backpacks I had seen before. It looked decently with its fine craftsmanship. So decently, that I knew it had been made with human hands. The decency didn't make it look delicate, no, on the contrary, rather strong and sturdy.

"Come. We have to go now." Severus stated as if he was in a hurry.

"Are we too late for something?"

Severus shook his head. "No, that's not it, but we need our time today." The wizard put out his arm and glanced at me.

"Grab onto my arm, we are going to apparate." I startled at his comment, afraid to get sick again and hesitated to do so. Of course he had noticed it and snarled: "I'm an advanced wizard, remember? It will be fine, so come on, grab onto it, tightly. We don't have the whole day."

At some point I had thought he would have comforted me with the idea of apparating, but, of course, he was his cocky self like always.

I put my hands around his arm, like he had demanded. Severus checked the grip to make sure everything was okay. I could only imagine what would happen if it wasn't.

In a matter of second, we apparated and it was just as horrible as it had been before. The next thing I knew everything went black. I was pressed very hard from all directions. I could not breathe, cause it felt like there were iron bands tightening around my chest. My eyeballs were being forced back into my head. And my ear-drums were being pushed deeper into my skull. Overall, a horrible experience.

And there we were at our destination. I presumed it was Diagon Alley, but since I had never been in Diagon Alley before, I could only ask Severus for the truth.

Strange enough, I wasn't sick this time. Severus seemed just as surprised as I was. He had started watching me as soon as our feet had touched solid ground- he thought I hadn't noticed it, but I had-.

As I took a look at my new surroundings, I noticed we stood in a big corner located on a narrow alley. The corner was made out of three walls of light brown bricks, which were at least twice Severus length. Behind the walls were high- I supposed- houses. Or maybe the shops already.

The advertising posters on the walls showed all kinds of products I had never heard of. Things like: Droobles Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. The advertising posters were alternated with wanted posters of creepy looking chained men in striped prison suits. I wandered what they had done wrong to end up on such a poster.

And did I see that correctly? Were these pictures also moving? I took a better look and realised they actually did. I had to get used to the idea that apparently every picture here moved.

When I looked up, I noticed a bright blue sky. Only a few clouds today. So a good day to do some shopping.

At that moment, I heard a loud crack besides me- something that sounded like a car backfiring-. I quickly turned my head and noticed that just besides me stood a woman out of the sudden. I was confused at how I hadn't seen her coming, but quickly realised that she must had had apparated too.

The woman looked at me with an arrogant gaze, her eyes penetrating my body. She seemed confused by my bewildered look and hid those feelings with an even more arrogant attitude. She gave Severus an offended look before she headed off towards the small alley on the end of the corner.

"Are we done embarrassing me in front of everyone?" he snarled and walked towards the alley too.

"Well, I'm sorry that this is all new for me, advanced wizard." I retorted sarcastically. A bad move, cause the wizard turned around with an intimidating scowl on his face.

"Just shut up!" he hissed. "Don't be surprised about magic, don't be surprised about the way of dressing, just don't be surprised by anything. And oh yeah, Do as I say when I say, okay?" I nodded, which apparently pleased him.

"Good." He turned back around and said: "follow me."

We walked through the small, dark alley and I was surprised by how much liveliness there was on the other side of the alley in comparison with the corner we had just stood in.

Once out of the alley, we entered a huge street with all kinds of shops, all different from each other. Tilting buildings, big windows, red painted wood, cylindrical window displays and hanging, striped awnings. Everything, just everything. There was so much to see and even if you would once get the thought that you had seen anything, you would notice another new thing.

The street had some kind of medieval touch to it, thanks to the way of architecture and the use of so much wood. Still, the way of dressing of the passing people reminded me we were still in the twentieth century.

Well, speaking about people, there were pretty much of them, in my opinion.

Men with long capes, like Severus', women with pointy witch heads in all kinds of colours and children in more similar cloths to mine- more muggle like-. Everyone was doing some shopping at this beautiful day and who would blame them? It was the right time to do so.

I was highly fascinated by everything to see and had totally forgotten about Severus, who was still standing next to me. My bewilderment wasn't a pleasing thing in his opinion and he was soon going to end it.

"Are we done looking?" he asked sarcastically.

"Huh?" His comment had pulled me out of my reverie and I hadn't even heard it completely.

My reaction seemed to make him more irritated, but he kept his anger to himself and walked into the street instead. Me, scampering behind him to not lose him in this strange environment.

We walked through the street in utter silence, while Severus seemed to be looking for a certain shop.

"Are we specifically going to somewhere" I inquired, still looking to all the buildings, of which none seemed the same.

He nodded and gave me a quick look before saying: "yes. There are a couple of stores we have to visit, since you don't have any wizarding cloths and/or useful stuff."

I thought about his answer and looked at all the shop windows to get an idea of where he was talking about.

Long, dark purple, female coats in the shop window of a clothing store. Cages with animals in another one- I took a better look at them and realised the shop sold frogs, kittens and owls among other things-. A bookshop, with a shop window full of books- books of which I didn't recognized the titles, but had no magic to them either-.

There was just so much to see and so little time. Severus walked through the street as if it was the most normal thing ever and I supposed it even was like that to him. Even though I knew it was an impossible job to see everything, I still tried.

I was too busy with trying to see everything, cause I had lost the attention to look in front of me.

I bumped into someone and tried to apologize immediately. But when I looked at the person I had bumped into, but was faced by an immense chest. The width of his body was enormous and his arms were pretty muscular.

I finally got the courage to slowly look up and face who I had bumped into. To my surprise, his face looked friendly and his long, dark brown hair, together with his long beard made it stange enough even friendlier.

"Oh, I'm sorry little girl." the man stated as if it was his fault. "Sometimes I forget to look more down."

Surprised by his apology and still intimidated by his length, I didn't react and stayed dumbfounded at the thought of how tall someone could ever become.

"Did I scare you?" he asked sadly. "I'm sorry, but you don't have to be afraid. I'm just a friendly half-giant."

A bit comforted now, I finally dared to speak.

"It wasn't your fault, sir. I should have better watched my surroundings, or better less, so to say." I apologized.

"Ah. New here I suppose?"

"Yes."

"Impressive, huh?"

"Yes, it is." I admitted, while blushing.

"Oh, how rude of me. Rubeus Hagrid, keeper of keys and grounds of Hogwarts. But everyone calls me Hagrid."

Hagrid? Had I heard that name before? And then I remembered it.

"Than you must be the one who has taken care of my owl for a while."

He seemed to not remember the fact he had and said: "could be. I take care of a lot of owls at Hogwarts, but you seem to young to be a student."

"Never mind." I stated to swipe the idea away. "My name is Ellea."

I shook the man's huge hands and hoped I would get it back, uncrushed.

"Nice to meet you, Ellea."

Strange enough, Severus had not noticed I had stopped walking and had walked forward. When he finally had noticed, he came back with a frown that could mean nothing good for me.

He saw Hagrid and slowly stepped behind me.

"Oh hello professor." he greeted Severus kindly.

"Good day, Hagrid." he responded.

"Is she with you, professor?"

"Yes." he replied reluctantly.

"Oh, I didn't know you showed new muggle students around Diagon Alley. I thought only McGonagall did that."

"She is the exception to the rule." he explained, indicating with his hand to me.

Hagrid nodded and said: "well, have a good day then, Ellea."

I smiled up at the enormous half-giant and thanked him.

"Professor." he said to Severus and walked off.

I couldn't help but look over my shoulder at the enormous man. A half-giant? Do giants even exist?, I asked myself, but came to the conclusion that if he was indeed a half-giant that there were indeed complete giants.

"Stay close to me next time." Severus hissed out of a sudden.

"I'm sorry, I just bumped into him. Accidentally of course."

"I believe you, but just stay close now. I don't want to lose you here."

He walked away without waiting for a response and I wondered why he was so tensed out of a sudden.

I walked by his side and still looked at the shops- but more with my eyes at the people now.

Looking more at people makes you see things. You can sometimes immediately see how someone is. What drives them. Their feelings.

Take that woman in front of that shopping window for example. She was in her sixties, had greasy, curly, dark hair and not particularly beautiful. Her hanging shoulders indicated she was upset. But why? She looked through the window towards a small bottle with a pink liquid. _Love potion_ was written above it, with girlish, golden letters. No ring around her fingers, not married. She probably longed for love she could have never gotten in her live through the natural way and was now doubting if she should try it another way.

Or take that woman out there, looking at a jar of lotion. She is her late forties, has already a few wrinkles and her make-up indicates she places great value to her appearance. She looked upset as she touched one of her wrinkles. There are only a few people who like aging and she was certainly not one of them. She was probably longing for everything that would make her young again, but since there are no time machines, she had to do it with the large selection of make-up products.

Or that man over there, leaning against the wall, clearly drunk. His long, greasy, uncombed, gray hair indicated he didn't care much about his appearance at all. His dirty, torn clothes indicate a poor way of living. So probably a hobo. His drunk state could have meant he was addicted, and that was why he was so poor, but those were only insinuations.

I was surprised to see how easily readable magical people were. Than they had atleast one thing in common with my folk, the muggles. Or maybe my past folk, I didn't know.

Severus passed a corner and I just followed him.

A man outside one of the shops waved to Severus. He didn't wave back.

"Good day, professor." the man greeted him kindly. Was surprised by the fact everyome called him 'professor' and not just by his name. Severus seemed not so surprised and greeted the man with a simple 'hello, Jiggers.'

Severus seemed reluctant to talk to the man, but walked up to him when he had realised there was no way out of the upcoming conversation.

"What can I do for you today, professor?" the old man asked with a broom in his hands.

"Nothing today, Jiggers. I have other things to attend to."

"Oh, like showing that muggle around?" he asked patronizingly.

I could see the irritation in Severus' eyes, but I couldn't tell if it was because he had to take me to this place or that it was because the man had called me a muggle.

"You know muggle kids are not allowed in the Wizarding World."

"I know, I know. I was only joking with you." the man said with a smile. Severus didn't.

"Why did you actually think I'm a muggle?" I asked the man, interrupting their conversation.

"The clothes, kid." he replied.

I looked at my clothes and noticed they were indeed different from what they were wearing, especially my jeans.

"I didn't know you showed muggle-borns around. It thought that that Gryffindor woman always did it."

"She is the exception to the rule." he stated again.

The man nodded and shook my hand.

"Well, I am Christopher Jiggers from the Slug & Jiggers Apothecary." he introduced himself. "I sell all kind of ingredients for potions. You seek, I have it."

"Well, not everything." Severus mumbled.

The man seemed to not have heard Severus words and just went on with telling about his store.

"Do you already know an ingredient for potions, kid?"

"A few, I guess."

"Well, say it, and I have it."

"Okay."

"Well... come on, say one."

I tried to remember one and came up with one Severus had told me about in his basement.

"Unicorn blood."

The man seemed perplexed. And not only the man. Severus shot daggers to me with his eyes, angry and surprised at the same time.

"I beg your pardon?" the man asked and gave Severus a confused look.

I had forgotten what the ingredient did, I had only remembered the name and didn't really understand their confusion.

"Unicorn blood." I repeated.

The man stammered and gazed at Severus, who seemed to baffled to say something.

"Of course they don't have unicorn blood." he snarled. "Where do you even get that from!?"

Clear to me, he was lying. He had not forgotten about what he had explained to me in his basement. Another thing that was clear to me, I was in a lot of trouble. Maybe if I played along with him, he would be less angry.

"You said nearly everything could be used in a potion, so why not the blood of a unicorn?"

"It's highly illegal, that's why." the man replied suspiciously.

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"That... eh... don't mind, I think." the man said.

I looked over at Severus who had realised I had been lying for him. The level of his frustration reduced and he only seemed a bit tensed by now.

"Well, I think we have to go now."

The man nodded. "Yeah. I have got to do some stuff too." he said and gave a quick look at the broom in his hands.

The two man said goodbye with a quick 'have nice day' and we walked away, leaving the man behind.

Once in the next street, one of us finally dared to speak. And that person wasn't me.

"And what was that!?" he hissed, trying to not draw any attention from the other people passing by.

"I had forgotten about it and only remembered the name. It was the first thing that came up in my mind!"

The wizard sighed and let his frustration slip away.

"Do you know I find it to be unbelievable you can draw so much trouble towards the both of us?"

"I sometimes surprise myself too." I admitted.

"You know what, I think you have met enough people for today."

**Author's Note:**

**Hey reader!**

**More about Diagon Alley will follow in next week's chapter.**

**Sew you next week!**

**PS: special thanks to my Beta-Reader to2llyuntraceable.**


	23. Twilfitt and Tatting's

Chapter 23

Twilfitt and Tatting's

Severus turned to the left out of a sudden and walked into a clothing shop. _Twilfitt and Tatting's_ was written with golden letters on the big wooden beam above the door.

Severus pushed open the door and a bell rang to indicate the shop had some new customers. He kept the door open for me so I could enter easily and I thanked him with a small smile for his gentleness.

The shop looked slightly poshy with the well varnished wooden interior, but the wood on the walls started to give some signs of anility. It needed some attention, but apparently, the shop owner didn't care that much about it.

The corner right in front of the entrance caught my attention first. It leaded towards a second floor, which started halfway the ground floor, secured with railings.

Racks filled with dresses, skirts, trousers and other clothes, destined for women. Shelves stocked with cardigans and jumpers. And a closet with a few blouses. To only mention a few things that could be found on the ground floor.

Severus headed over towards a rack with some robes and of course, I followed him.

"Can I help you?" A woman asked after we had looked at the robes for only a minute. I hadn't noticed her coming towards us, so I startled a bit when she had started talking. She seemed to have not noticed it and just went on.

"I see that you're looking at some of our robes?" She raised her eyebrow in a friendly way and I instantly liked her. Her face small and looked even smaller thanks to some of her blond curls that were nearly hanging over eyes from the sides. She inspected me from behind her rectangular glasses and winked at me before she looked back at Severus, who seemed pleased with her help.

"We are actually looking for some appropriate wizarding cloths."

"You two are looking in our female section, so I suppose you come for cloths for your daughter, am I right?"

Severus seemed disturbed by her assumption and became terribly tensed. He hesitated to give an answer, but did it anyway. Even though it could have been more.

"Yes."

The woman nodded and turned back to me. "And for what kind of cloths were you looking for, little girl?" I hated it when people called me like that, but strange enough, I accepted it from her.

I didn't know how to answer, since I had actually no idea where we were looking for. I had no idea what Severus had meant with 'appropriate wizarding cloths' and scratched the back of my head to come up with a great answer to not look stupid in front of her. However, Severus answered it for me when he had seen I had no answer to her question.

"One or skirts will do. And maybe some tights, I think." he said uneasily.

The woman nodded understandingly. "Yes, we have got that. Just follow me." She headed of towards further back into the store, we followed shortly behind her.

"Well, here we have got some skirts and the tights are in a closet over there." She pointed at a closet in the other corner. "If you need something, I'm behind the counter."

We both nodded and the woman scooted back towards counter where another woman was waiting to be helped.

"Well," Severus started uncomfortably, "pick on our two you like, fit it and then we go." He looked out to the street through the display windows and seemed to overthink something. He had made his decision, cause he said: "I'm in that bookshop on the other side of the street if you need me. I'm back in 20 minutes."

Before I could even answer, he had already walked out of the store.

I shrugged and let my hands slip through the skirts. Flamboyant colours, peculiar patterns and… was that a row of dead butterfly, sewed onto a long skirt!? I frowned in a horrified way and backed off for a second.

Why would anyone want that on there cloths!? Just disgusting. Was that what Severus had meant with 'appropriate wizarding cloths'!? Just so disgusting!

At that moment, a hand touched my shoulder. It was the friendly woman again, who I, once again, hadn't noticed coming.

"Can I help you sweety?" she asked, her voice still kindly as ever.

"Well, ehm, what is actually…"

"What a witch of your age would wear?" she finished my sentence.

"Well, yes. As a matter of fact."

She smiled once again. "I know you are not from here, so shall I help you by finding some 'appropriate wizarding clothes'?"

I was surprised by the fact she made fun of Severus, but she had not the knowledge about him I had. Maybe if she had had that she wouldn't have made the joke. It still made me giggle though.

"I would love your help." I replied politely.

"Well, okay then. First wizarding fashion lesson: wizards and witches often wear green, black or purple. Or in a combination of course. But other colours are also not forbidden by a written or not written rule. Everyone just wears the colours they like, sometimes even very flamboyant colours."

I nodded understandingly.

"Second lessons: witches often wear a pointy head, but only grown-up witches. Although you will see a child with a pointy head sometimes, you don't see them that much."

I nodded again.

"Third lesson: wizards and witches wear capes, cloaks and robes. It's just the fashion from here, so get used to it. Many men walk around in robes in the Wizarding World, so don't think it's a dress and certainly don't make fun of them for it."

I remembered Dumbledore. He had worn a robe if I remembered correctly.

"That's it, I think." she stated satisfied. "Well now, let's have a look at the skirts." She slit her hands through the skirts and then asked: "what colour would you prefer?"

I thought for a few second before I said: "green and purple, I guess."

The woman nodded. "Good choice. And which length?"

"One above my knees, please. I don't like very long ones."

She nodded again. "Well…" She got three skirts from the rack and presented them to me.

Four beautiful skirts. A dark purple one with a Scottish check diamond pattern. One dark green pleated skirt. And a brighter purple skirt with one dead butterfly on it. I was already disgusted at the idea of touching the skirt, let alone wearing it.

"I would try these one if I were you. The fitting rooms are in the back… you know what, I will just go with you."

She walked ahead towards the back of the shop, towards the fitting room.

'They are already your size I think." she said. "I have measured thousands of waists over the previous years, so I think I can estimate the size of someone's waist." she stated as we had reached the fitting rooms.

I stepped into a fitting room and gave the woman a last look before closing the curtain.

I tried the dark purple one first and realised that the woman had been right, it really was my size. I examined myself in the mirror on the wall and saw it looked beautiful on my body.

"Come, show me." the woman said from the outside of the curtain.

I hesitated doing so, cause the woman was nice, yes, but she came a bit too close now. However, I did it anyway. I could tell her to back off anytime I wanted, so why not.

I stepped out and showed her myself. She became cheerful by the sight and clapped in her hands with a big smile on her face.

"It looks gorgeous on you, honey!" she exclaimed.

Her compliment had made me blush. "Thank you Ms. …"

"Amelia. Just Amelia."

I slightly smiled and stepped back in to try the other ones- the other two, since I was definitely not going to wear the one with the dead butterfly-.

The other purple on had had not the right size, but the green one was good.

The woman had been cheerful about the green one as well, but found it to be strange I had not wanted to try the one with the dead butterfly.

"That's fashion here, sweety." she tried to explain. "It's quite normal for girls on your age to wear something like that. It's fashion."

"Yeah, well sometimes you should just do what you like yourself and not just follow the rest."

"Wise words for a young one like yourself," she stated, genuinely impressed. "And how old are you, if I might ask?"

"10," I stated proudly.

"Well, in that case I have a great idea for what to wear with the skirts." She quickly turned around and scooted towards a closet in the front of the store. She returned with two blouses- a white and a black one- and two black tights.

"Try these ones two, honey," she said while pushing the garments in my hands and me in the fitting room.

All the four things fitted right and when I came back out, the woman seemed genuinely pleased with herself for getting nearly all the right things.

She folded up the clothes and while piling it up she asked: "Your father has the money, hasn't he?"

"Yes, how much is it?"

"21 Galleons, 7 Sickles and 3 Knuts," she said as she placed the pile on the counter.

I had no idea how their currency worked, but it sounded like an awful a lot of money for just some clothes.

"Look, if you are going to get him here, than I can go and help some other customers, okay?"

I nodded and headed for the bookshop across the street.

An old building with a big beam, on it: _Obscures Books_ in dark green letters. A wooden bin in front of the shop showed some books that were for sale, but Severus was looking inside. I smiled at the thought of the difference between my mom and him. She would have definitely only looked at the books that were for sale. And Severus had a more specific taste.

And now I was thinking about the differences, there were an awful a lot more. And as my had could sum up all the differences, I realised that they had nearly nothing in common.

I wondered how they ever ended up together.

As I pushed the door open, I noticed the enormous piles of books all over the store. Closets from ground to ceiling, filled with books. Not even a single corner was unused- for as far as I could see-. The shop was quite dark. Only a few candles in a chandelier gave the room some light.

I noticed only two men in the room, of which Severus in the back and a man behind the counter. His face, severe, his hair grey and uncombed. His scary smile reminded me there was a door behind me.

Severus was reading the back of a book, while the creepy man was just staring at me with his cat-like eyes.

"Well, well," he mumbled suspiciously. "What can I do for you, girl?"

Severus had noticed us and walked up to me at the door.

"You can't get any money out of her, Aloys. She isn't here to buy a book." He pushed me back out of the store and I realised I hadn't even spent a full minute in there.

"Well, you haven't either, _professor_," the man sneered.

"I wouldn't be so rude, Aloys. I know I am only one of the few customers you have and chasing one away wold be a waste. I would become some nicer, so maybe you can save your failing shop," he fired back with his ever so arrogant tone and closed the door behind us.

"I suppose your done?" he asked as if the last thing had never happened. Well, I hadn't forgotten about it at all. I was rather surprised he had actually given the man advice about how to save his apparently 'failing shop'. It just wasn't something for Severus.

I nodded and as we crossed the street, I asked: "why did you give him that advice? Is he a friend of yours."

Severus frowned. "No, not at all, but he is the owner of a good bookshop, for a Potions Master at least. I hope it will continue to exist," he declared as if it was nothing.

Did that meant he had only done it for himself? How selfish would that be.

Amelia was standing behind the counter, holding up her hand in which she got three golden coins from a female customer. And as it was our turn, she got the pile of clothes from behind the counter.

"21 Galleons, 7 Sickles and 3 Knuts," she stated and waited for Severus to place it on the counter. "Oh, we have forgotten to get you a robe," she stated apologetically, more to Severus than to me.

"No need," he simply replied. "Abd how many did you say?"

"21 Galleons, 7 Sickles and 3 Knuts," she repeated.

I heard Severus softly sighing when he heard the amount of money he had to pay and he reluctantly got a small, velvet, black sack, only a bit bigger than the palm of his hands.

When opening it, he got golden, silver and bronze coins out of it, counted them and placed them on the counter.

The woman looked at the coins, counted them for herself and nodded with a small grin. I slightly suspected her from scamming us, but Severus was the wizard here and knew everything about the Wizarding World and he said nothing, so I took it to be okay.

Amelia handed me the bag with the clothes and Severus the receipt.

"It was a pleasure to meet you, Ellea. And I hope you will learn your way through the Wizarding World rather quickly."

"A pleasure to meet you too." I responded, not knowing if I had to say Emilia or Ms. "How do you actually know I am born into the Muggle World?"

"The jeans, darling," she stated as she pointed to it with her long nails.

As we walked out of the store, Severus immediately headed to a new destination. I just followed him again.

"Swindlers," he muttered. "They could have better called it _Swindler and Tatting's_ if you ask me. I mean, 6 Galleons for a blouse!" he exclaimed, waving around with the receipt. "And then she even suggested to also take a robe! Is she mad! My bank account isn't endless, you know. No, we are going to _Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions_ to get you one."

**Author's Note:**

**Hey reader,**

**Another chapter about Diagon Alley. Next weeks' will be too. But until that time…**

**See you next week!**

**PS: special thanks to my Beta-Reader to2llyuntraceable.**


	24. Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions

"So, a robe?" I asked, trying to walk next to him- which costed some effort, since he walked pretty fast-.

"Yes," he replied. "Well, I changed my mind. I was more thinking about a cloak."

"A cloak." I repeated softly. The idea of wearing something like that seemed weird to me. Seeing other people wear it was okay, but wearing it myself...

"That's what I said," he responded irritated. "Stop stating the obvious."

Severus quickly turned around a corner and surprised by his sudden movement, I tried to follow him but bumped into someone again, someone tall, someone big.

"Oh, hey there again, little gal!" he greeted me with a laugh.

"Oh, hello there Hagrid." I stammered regretfully.

"You should really watch where you are going. Ones can happen. Twice is odd. Or do you want to bump into me?" he joked.

I chuckled and blushed. "No, I think I'm just clumsy sometimes."

Hagrid nodded understandingly. "I know how that feels."

Hagrid looked at the side to greet Severus, who had showed up behind me, silently as always.

"What are the odds of bumping into me again, professor?" Hagrid joked.

Severus couldn't laugh at the joke and instead just said: "slim, Hagrid. Slim."

Severus seemed a bit tensed at seeing Hagrid again. Why was he so aloof in showing himself with me?

"I think we have to move on, Hagrid." he stated.

"Well, see you the next time you bump into me." Hagrid joked.

"Yeah, see ya." I responded and the big man- well giant- tramped away.

When the giant was out of hearing distance, Severus snarled: "do you always have to be so...!" He didn't finish his sentence with words, instead he growled.

It felt like he could explode into one monster full of anger, so I stayed quiet.

"We need to move on," he growled and quickly turned around, his cloak twirling around him.

He quickly marched forward and I needed to jog to keep up with him.

"I am sometimes a bit clumsy," I admitted to apologize.

"So I have noticed," he retorted with a frown and marched even faster forward now.

"Jeez, I'm sorry, okay!?"

Severus sighed in annoyance.

"Something is bothering you and I think that something is me. Why am I so annoying?" I snarled.

"Clever in the social field, you are," he stated sarcastically.

"Than what is it!?"

He sighed again, but now in a more frustrated way.

"Many people say stupid questions don't exist, but apparently they do."

My turn to get frustrated.

"And many people say being straightforward is sometimes rude, but most of the time it isn't, so why aren't you just straightforward?"

Severus slowed his pace down.

"I don't want to be rude."

"Most of the time it isn't."

"That depends on the person and the message."

"And you think that the message can make it rude?"

"Among other things, yes."

I sighed.

"Just tell me."

"You know I don't want to walk with you here anyway."

Silence. I didn't know what to say. Severus had already said enough. I knew that was the truth. I knew that was his opinion, but I wanted it to not be true. I normally acted as if it wasn't.

"Yeah, that was rude."

"Stating the obvious again, aren't you?"

Silence from my side.

"You know how I think about all of this, but I shouldn't have let me be persuaded to say it out loud."

How hard his words were. How good he was at lying. Something wasn't right. I felt it wasn't the full truth. And as the curious person that I am, I needed to know what was.

"That isn't the truth."

"I beg your pardon?" he asked indignantly.

"That isn't full truth, how rude your word might be."

"Well, as a matter of fact, it is," he declared defensively. "And you are the one who is rude now by the way. Claiming I lie, ridiculous!" he exclaimed more to himself than to me.

"I am not only claiming. It's a fact."

"It isn't. And shut up now," he snarled.

"Or what? Want to give me detention?" I teased.

He stopped his walking, abruptly, his cloak sweeping behind him. He looked me right in the eyes with the most ominous look ever, pointed his forefinger to me in a way only angry parents do and bowed forward to intimidate me with his length.

"We are not at Hogwarts," he whispered angrily. "So there are no rules I have to take into account."

I was too shocked to react.

"Do not ever claim I'm lying again or you will see what I do when there are no rules!"

Be brave, be brave, I kept telling myself.

"You won't do that."

"Bravery is recklessness most of the time," he mocked. "I wouldn't try it out if I were you, Ellea."

It was better to stay silent now. Severus seemed pleased with that decision and straightened his back again. The scowl stayed.

"Let's move on," he snarled and walked away, not waiting for a response.

I rolled my eyes and jogged after him again.

After a few minutes of silence- not unwanted- between us and passing by the weirdest shops with the strangest names, Severus said: "well, this is it."

I looked at the grey building with the purple extension. Two doors- purple as well- with four windows in it. One with a golden doorknob in the middle, the other with a normal black handle. I found the golden one to be strange. Opening that door wouldn't be easy. Luckily, we took the other on.

In the round-glassed shop window were some- for me- peculiar clothes and accessories displayed. A pointy head Robin Hood like head, a silver ring with a black crystal spider on top, a red blazer with small golden buttons, and way much more, but definitely not what you would see in the London I was from. Not in bad way- I liked the ring-, but just different.

Severus apparently knew his way through the store and immediately walked over to the woman in the back.

She was measuring a boy on a stool with a long measuring tape. Her curly white hair was put in a bun with two pencils. Locks of hair had already fallen out of it, but no of those fell in front of her eyes as she moved. The purled rectangular glasses on her nose focussed with great precision on the small numbers on the measuring tape. The confidence in her way of moving was pretty clear which meant that she was completely in her element.

The boy, on the other hand, looked timidly and uncomfortable by the touching of the woman and watched every step she made. He didn't visit this store often, that was for sure. However, he didn't seem skittish towards his surroundings. He was probably grown up in the wizarding world and that was not only to notice by his behaviour. Hs clothes gave it away too. His wore an old fashioned brown trousers and a blue wool sweater.

The woman noticed her new customers immediately and stopped measuring the boy.

"Good afternoon," she greeted us happily. "Where can I help you with?"

"She needs a cloak," Severus explained. "A black one."

The woman nodded. "Do you already know a fabric for it?"

"No."

"Rayon, like yours?" she proposed.

"No, she needs something stronger."

The both of them looked at me from head to toe, Severus more judgementally than the woman.

"Cotton is pretty strong and suited for a child of her age."

Severus nodded. "Yes. And what would be the price then?"

The woman bit her finger while looking with a critical eye at my body. It started to feel a bit uncomfortable now.

"Well… if I see her length… and the fabric… and the colour… hmm… 9 Galleons."

Severus nodded, but didn't seem happy with the price. However, he didn't complain and complied.

"And when can you be done?" he asked.

"I need to finish taking his sizes first," she pointed to the boy in the back of the store, "and then I can start with her. I think I will need a half an hour. And then making her cloak which is going to take around an hour."

Severus nodded and turned to me.

"Well, don't make a mess," he told me strictly and walked out of the store.

Surprised by his departure I kept looking at the door had had come and left through. He had already done that at the other store and now he did it again. Was it normal for magical folk to leave children alone to do shopping? Or was it just Severus? I guessed- and kind of hoped- the second.

"Well, come on, girl. Let's go to the place you will be measured," she said nicely while waving with her hand to follow her. "My name is Madam Malkin by the way. And please be quiet while I'm working. I need to concentrate."

She straightened her measuring tape and ordered the boy to spread his legs. The boy complied and she measured the length of his legs. All the measures she took were written in a small notebook. I wondered how many peoples measures would be int here.

I seated myself on the stool next to the boy and looked up to see his face.

He looked around my age, had light brown eyes and just as brown short hair- well cut-. His white face had some freckles which made him look like an extreme goody-goody or a rather evil bully.

The boy returned my gaze and felt uneasy for doing it. You didn't need to be a psychologist to spot the regret on his face. However, he didn't stop himself from looking. And neither did I.

"What's your name?" I asked shortly after.

The boy seemed to be pulled out of a reverie and needed time to think what his name was.

"Uh," he stammered. "My name is Ruben." He apparently felt so uneasy, he looked away and dropped a silence. I had given up the hope for a conversation, but after a while he asked: "and what's yours?"

"Ellea."

"Not common," he concluded softly.

"So is Ruben."

"Indeed."

"What does it mean?" he asked.

"My name?"

"Yes, your name."

I had never actually thought about that. What would it mean?

"Uh… I don't know."

"I understand. Not many people know it, but every name has its own meaning."

"So what does yours mean?"

"Well, it's Swedish and means: see, a son."

"Really?" I asked more rude than I had intended to.

Ruben had noticed it and stayed silent, embarrassed, I guess. I had to make it up to him.

"I think you have a wonderful name," I stated nicely.

Ruben smiled and blushed. "Thank you."

"Ellea isn't a bad one too," he said and stepped off the stool, since Madam Malkin had been done measuring him. She wrote the last numbers in her notebook and then waved for me to stand on my stool.

I complied and she immediately started working, my arms first.

Ruben seated himself on his stool and looked up at me, to turn the rolls.

"And which…"

"Could you kids be quiet now." Madam Malkin cut him off. "I need to do my work right."

Ruben nodded and stared to the ground.

After some time, a woman stepped into the shop, her hair the same colour as Rubens'.

"Are you done, Ruben?" she asked.

"Yes," he simply replied and walked over to what I imagined as his mom.

"Bye, Ruben," I said to him.

Ruben turned around with an amazed face.

"Uh, yeah, bye."

The woman sighed and shook her head in frustration.

"Don't act so skittish, Ruben. No need to do that," she told him firmly.

Ruben just nodded to his mother.

"I'm sorry, girl. He is just a bit shy."

"Mom!" Ruben exclaimed.

"What!? It is like it is, honey. And that is just you. No need to shame yourself for yourself."

Ruben sighed.

"But I'm happy you have made a new friend," she told him. "He doesn't have that many friends. He is always so shy," she said to me.

"Mom! Stop! Now!"

"Oh, alright, dear. Say goodbye to your new friend."

"See ya," he stated softly.

His mother rolled with her eyes.

"Tomorrow we come back for the robe," she said told Madam Malkin.

"Fine by me," she replied and the mother and her son exited the store.

Some mothers, I thought and quickly pushed away the thoughts about my own mother to nod burst out into tears.

Madam Malkin finished measuring me, noted the last numbers down in her notebook and took some time to tidy up her stuff.

I, on the other hand, took some time to take a better look at the store.

It wasn't as chic as the other store, but it didn't feel cheap either. The racks and closets had some scratches, but that felt actually better than all the tidy stuff at Twilfitt and Tatting's- not that that store had been bad, this just felt better.-.

"Where are you from, Ellea?" Madam Malkin asked after she had finished cleaning up.

"Uh, well…" I had no idea if I had to say London or Cokeworth.

"Don't worry, I get it. You're not from here."

"Uh, no."

"And professor Snape took you out for getting wizarding clothes?"

"Uh, yeah."

She seemed surprised. "Normally, I only see professor McGonagall with muggleborns around here. I didn't know Snape did it too. And certainly not at this time of the year."

"Well, ehm, yeah…"

At that moment, Severus stepped into the store again.

"Well, are you done?" he asked me.

"Yes, I think so." I looked over at the woman for confirmation. She nodded.

"Good. Well, can I get the cloak delivered?"

"Certainly, sir. For 5 Sickles. Just write the address on this." She got a pen and paper from behind her counter.

She smiled at me while Severus wrote the address down. "I tried to get those muggle jeans to the Wizarding World, but nobody wants them. Trust me, I have tried."

I chuckled.

Severus handed her the paper and the money and she thanked him. And when she looked over to me, she stated: "well, you not only got yourself a new cloak, but also a new friend."

**Author's Note:**

**Hey reader!**

**Liked the chapter? I certainly hope so.**

**Want to know what Snape thinks about her new friend? Read next week's chapter to find out.**

**See you next week!**


	25. Interested

"A new friend?" Severus asked suspiciously as we walked on the street again.

"Yeah, well, a friend. I met a boy in the store."

"Oh. And what's his name?"

"Ruben."

Severus seemed to think.

"Do you know him?"

"No. I have never heard of a boy named Ruben. Is he your age?"

"I guess so. I haven't asked, but it seems so."

"Then he isn't one of my students."

"Do you remember all of your students then?"

"Most of them."

"Impressive."

"Well, if someone blows up a cauldron, you remember."

I laughed. Severus didn't. It was apparently intended very seriously.

"But back to that friend of yours, what does he know about you?"

"I'm sorry?" I asked incredulously. Why did he ask that? Why was that... It wasn't any of his business.

"Are you deaf?" he snarled.

"Why are you even asking what he _knows_ about me!?"

"I was just interested!"

"No you weren't. That's not a question to ask if you're interested."

"Well, maybe in your opinion, but it wasn't meant that way!" he snarled.

The suspicion in my body rose and I wondered where he was up to. The tensed behaviour if he was seen with me, me talking to other people. He was acting very odd- well, more than he usually was-.

I had decided to drop a silence and stop the argument, but Severus had other plans.

"Are you still going to answer the question?" he said demandingly.

The only thing I could do was sighing in frustration. What the hell did he want!?

"No I'm not answering that question! I don't owe you an explanation for talking to people! It's none of your business what I discuss with people!"

"I beg your pardon?" he stated indignantly.

"I'm not going to answer your question," I replied confidently. "And why do you want to know it so badly by the way?"

I hoped for an honest answer, but as the person that he was, I felt I wouldn't get it.

"I just told you, I was just interested, but leave it for what it is now."

"Not interested anymore?"

"Not that I cared in the first place," he stated softly.

"Excuse me?!" I exclaimed. "Then why do you even ask!?"

"To be polite, as apparently the only one between us."

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Why do you always have to be so difficult?"

"I beg your pardon?" he stated indignantly.

"Well, I think you are lying about why you asked the question in the first place and now you are trying to hide it with insults."

"You _think_?"

"I claim."

Severus huffed. "You claim? And yet again you are getting to the wrong conclusions."

"Don't try to hide it. I know."

An evil grin appeared on his face. "You don't _know_. You just said you _think_. And there isn't something to _know_, because there is nothing to _know_."

"I have the right to get the truth.'

"Now, you need to stop. It was kind of entertaining before, refuting your arguments. Well, arguments…"

I gave in and stated silent. I wouldn't get the truth. Not today.

"And you don't have the right to get the truth. I decide when and when you don't get the truth."

"So, you admit that you lie sometimes?"

"I didn't say that."

I raised my eyebrows.

"Shut up!" he snarled and walked away with big steps.

He was definitely hiding something. But what? Well, I wasn't finding that out today and I probably never was.

"We are going home," he stated with a frustrated tone.

As we walked through the paved streets of Diagon Alley, I thought about my whole life, basically. I mean, being told you're a witch out of nowhere is not just something. Well, out of nowhere, I had always been a witch as a matter of fact, but I hadn't known about it. They had never told me. They thought it had been better that way. And maybe it was. I mean, having a kid that tells everyone she is a witch isn't the best situation as a parent.

They. They had never told me. My parents had never told me. I wondered where their bodies would be now. Were they cremated? Or buried? Or... I didn't know, but I hoped the had had a proper funeral, without me. Without anyone.

I had had to pack my bags pretty quickly. There had been no time for mourning and I actually wondered when it would be the right time.

Severus wouldn't mourn. He had pushed every contact with my mom away, systematically, and was long over her. Me on the other hand...

And of course I wasn't. They had been my parents, my guardians and even my best friends sometimes. When I needed a shoulder to cry on, they were there. When I needed to go to the dentist- which I hated, since that dentist looked extremely creepy-, my mom was there. Someone to help me train my swimming skills when I didn't reach the goal of underwater swimming, my dad was there. And when I did my exam swimming and finally got that diploma, the both of them stood on the side of the pool to cheer me on just like the other parents did for their kids.

Severus was not that kind of parent and he would never be. However, I liked him none the less. But I wondered if I did that because I wanted it or if I really meant it.

And even if I didn't like it, I had to live with him. He apparently was my father and I had to deal with that. And he had to deal with me, even though it was sure from his side he didn't like me.

He had not liked me from the beginning, because, like he had made clear during our quarrel in the basement, he had never wanted to conceive me and he hated it to have and take care of a kid.

If that was truly true than I wondered why he had become a teacher at a boarding school. Why teaching children if he detested them? Just illogical.

Well, Severus was just a conflicting person overall. So different from the family I had come from.

In contrast to Severus, my mom had been logic itself. Everyone always knew exactly what to expect and what not to expect from her. And most of the time, those expectations came true.

And now I was thinking about it, there were way much more contradictions between Severus and my mom. For example: my mom had been open and social, Severus tried to close himself off from the world as much as possible. She had been loving, he was harsh. My mom had always been very polite, he was often rude and unlikable.

I wondered how they could have ever ended up in each other's arms. There was nothing they had in common... well the both of them had grown up with magic, but that was probably it. And even that was not completely true.

My mom had gone to a special school for squibs- that's at least what she write in her letter to me- and Severus had intended to Hogwarts. He had the magical ability. She had never gotten it.

He had left her for not having the same ability. He had found her to be less than him because of it. The swine! That horrible piece of...

"Are you crying?" Severus asked out of a sudden.

He had pulled me out if my reverie and I didn't know what to say.

"Hello? I asked if you were crying."

"Huh? No, I wasn't." I responded surprised.

He frowned. "Then why do you have a tear hanging on your chin?"

And now I felt it. A drip, hanging under my cheek. I imagined I had let slip a tear when i had thought about my parents, but had been too deep in my thoughts to notice. I quickly wiped it away and pretended it had never happened. I didn't feel the urge to talk about it with him.

"Why were you crying?"

_Oh shit, he actually wants to talk about it_, I thought.

"Well?"

"I accidently bit my lip," I lied.

Severus turned his head to look at the shops on the other side of the street. I couldn't see his face when he said: "I feel that you're lying."

"What?" I exclaimed, trying to cover up the lie.

"You heard me," he replied as he turned back around. "I _claim_ that you are lying."

"And based on what if I might ask?"

"It seemed like you were in reverie."

"So it _seemed_?"

"Head bended, low shoulders and not really watching your surroundings."

"Oh."

"Where were you thinking about?"

"Not interesting."

"I ask it right, so if I ask I am interested in even an uninteresting story."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Don't I have the _right_ to know it?" he still talked in a normal tone which made my suspicious.

"No. No, you don't."

"Tell me." Still with a normal tone.

"It's none of your business!" I exclaimed.

Severus dropped a silence and I supposed I had won. I supposed.

"Do you understand now?"

I didn't get it. What would he mean?

"I did not truly want to know where you were thinking about. I don't care enough. I just wanted to let you feel how it is if someone claims you're lying."

"Excuse me!?"

"I think it worked quite well, didn't it?"

I stayed silent.

"What? No words anymore?" he asked with a dirty look on his face. I felt the urge to smack it off, but luckily somehow found the power to restrain myself.

"I think you have learned your lesson."

"Yeah, that you're a jerk," I whispered through the grits of my teeth.

He quickly turned his head to me with a baffled look on his face.

"Excuse me!?"

"What?" I tried to hide what I had said.

"Don't ever call me like that again!"

"What!? I didn't say anything!"

He turned his head back to watch the street and seemed to doubt his own ability to hear.

With big steps, he marched on. And still I needed to do effort to keep up with him.

He walked past a corner and recognised the alley from earlier that day. We were heading to the apparition spot.

Wizards and witches were passing us as we walked to the right place to apparate. It was already getting a bit dark and I wondered what those people should still do at such a late time. Were the stops still open here after five o'clock. Well, this was the Wizarding World, so why not?

We walked over to the other corner of the apparition place, people were still apparating in the other corner and disappearing behind the corner of the alley, on their way to Diagon Alley.

"You know how this goes by now."

I nodded and grabbed his arm tightly.

He didn't check the safety, like he had done before. Instead, he just apparated. And yet again it felt like hell. I hoped that would change one day, but didn't think so.

We had apparated right into the shed in the backyard. I found I to be a strange place to reappear- and so did Rowan who startled so much of our apparition that he fell of his sitting stick. Luka didn't seem surprised at all. It had apparently happened way more times to him.-, so I asked him why we had apparated into the shed.

"We can apparate out of the house, but not into it again."

"Why not?" I asked as he held the door open for me.

"Because I have protected the house from magic like that."

"Against burglars?"

"He gave me a surprised look. "Yeah, something like that."

He unlocked the backdoor with an iron key that seemed to age back to the fifties or so and let the both of us in.

He got a small brown bock slip out of his pocket and placed carefully it on the kitchen table. He got out his wand as well and pointed it with a sweep at the box. The box started growing immediately and became as big as the wingspan of my arms.

He opened the box and got some bread and a bottle of milk out of it. More groceries followed and he started to put them away in the refrigerator and the cupboards.

"I used a shrinking spell," he stated as he put a bottle of juice in the refrigerator.

"Impressive."

"Not really.

"It's in the first year curriculum."

"Useful for things like this."

"Stating the obvious again?"

"Maybe."

"Your new clothes are in the box too."

I got them out and examined them. These were at least better than the other ones I had seen in the store.

"Thanks for the clothes by the way."

He nodded while putting a can of beans in a cupboard.

"I need to buy much more food since you live here," he declared as he put another can in a cupboard. "You eat like a troll."

"A lot?"

"Yeah, for a girl. I have no idea where you leave it."

"The doctors at school told me I'm going to become tall, so I think that's where it's going to."

He nodded. "Hungry?"

"A bit."

"Making food then?"

"Good idea."

**Author's Note:**

**Hey reader!**

**My beta-reader (to2llyuntraceable) and I are working on a storyline for a better version of this story. It's going to take a while to finish the storyline and re-write the story (besides still working on this one for you), so don't expect it very soon, but I just wanted to share it with you people.**

**See you next week!**


	26. Police

I walked towards the shed to feed the owls, like I did every morning.

I opened the coffin, grabbed their food and filled their feeding trays.

Their water trays needed to be refilled. I picked the trays from the shelves and turned around to walk out of the shed.

On the moment I turned around, I saw two men standing in the doorpost. They wore black, thick suits that looked like armour, black balaclavas, black helmets and a carried both a machine gun on their backs.

I startled and dropped the trays. The sounds of metal which fell on the ground was loud and also caught the attention of the men.

I was stiff with terror and didn't know what to do. All kinds of thoughts filled my head. Yelling for help? Asking what the men did here Fighting them? Or just screaming?

One of them brought his finger slowly to his lips. I got the gesture I had to be quit. I obeyed. I had to. The men had machine guns. I was so scared. Maybe they would use them. Why else would they have them.

One of the men stepped closer into the shed and said: "don't be afraid. We are policemen. We are here to help you. To get you out." The man stretched his arm out to me. "Come with us. We have to be quick," he added.

I looked at him in confusion. First I didn't get what he meant, but a moment later I knew.

I was missing. My photo had been in that newspaper the day I took the train to Cokeworth. Everyone in England knew my story. How could I forget about that? I had probably been all over the news. And I just walked on the streets next to Severus. People had seen me. Now I understood the weird looks. How could I have missed it?

The man stepped closer to grab my arm, but I stepped back.

"I don't want to go. This is a mistake." I stammered.

The man looked over his shoulder to his colleague and frowned sadly. "I understand you feel this way. It has been a long time in captivity. That does something with people, but we have to go now." He grabbed my arm and dragged me towards him. I startled and fell with my knees on the ground.

I struggled to get out of his arms, but it didn't really work. The man grabbed my other arm to and tried to lift me on my feet, but I still tried to writhe myself out of his grip.

The other man grabbed his walkie talkie from his shoulder and said: "we have got this. Just go."

"This is just a big mistake." I tried again, but the policeman did as well. He my arms pulled again, but I wasn't going to give up the fight that easily.

"Let go of..." I screamed, but was interrupted by a firm hand on my mouth. The other man stood behind me and hold one of his hands on my mouth and tried to lift me up with the other. Both men were trying to carry me out of the shed, but I resisted fiercely.

One grabbed my feet, the other the rest of my body and covered my mouth.

The moment they lifted me out of the shed, I saw a swat team enter the house. They wore the same clothes as the two with whom I was fighting. They also bad the same machine guns and hold those firmly in their hands.

"Police!" One of them yelled. I could see, through the window in the kitchen, how they ran through the kitchen and entered the living room.

They carried me through the door in the backyard, onto the street. When we passed the corner, I could hear one of the swat members yell: "don't move! You're under arrest!"

They carried me towards an ambulance which stood on the end of the street. I had never given up struggling and was still trying to wriggle myself out of this situation. My efforts had no results besides the dirty scowls from the two swat men.

Three doctors came running towards us and hands grabbed all around my arms. Escaping wasn't an option anymore.

"What happened?" one of the doctors asked.

"Stockholm syndrome." one of the swat men said. I wanted to say the opposite and tell them that Severus was my father, but one of the swat members still had his hand around my mouth.

I made noises, but due to his hands, they didn't form words.

"I'm going to remove my hand if you promise to be silent." the swat member with his hand on my mouth said. I nodded in response and he removed his hand.

I didn't speak like he had said. I didn't want that hand on my mouth again.

"I need to examine her, so if you cops could let go of her." one of the doctors said irritated.

The firm grips around my body loosened, only the grips of the three doctors remained. I relaxed and cooperated. I knew I was outnumbered and would lose anyway, so why would I struggle more?

The doctors and I stared to the cops. The cops started feeling really uncomfortable and just walked away.

"Do you have wounds or anything?" the same doctor asked me.

"No." I simply said. I saw the faces of the doctors. I knew I couldn't convince them, but I had to try.

"That man they are arresting right now is my dad. He isn't some kind of kidnapper if you think that's the case. Just..."

"Stop." the doctor interrupted me strictly. "We both know that isn't true. You don't have to lie. We are here to help you." he said nicely while the other doctors still hold me in their grips.

"But IT IS the truth!" I screamed in despair. The doctor sighed.

"Let's go." he said to the doctors and then turned his gaze to me. "You are going to be quiet, otherwise we have to make you quiet with some medicines." he said just as strictly as he had done before.

I gulped at what he had said and nodded in agreement. I really didn't want them to make me unconscious or something. Than I would completely lose the control over my own body.

The doctors were dragging me into the back of the ambulance when Severus, surrounded by the swat team, stepped through the door of the backyard and onto the street.

Severus was handcuffed and wore a black bag over his head. The swat members forced him to walk bended. Severus' steps were uneven and looked very confused. Who wouldn't in his position?

I stood inside the back of the ambulance. The doctors wanted to step in with me and close the doors, but I made the situation unexpected to them.

Seeing Severus, handcuffed, made me feel so lost. What had I done? Thanks to me, he was arrested. Everything that was happening were my fault. I couldn't restrain myself and shouted: "Severus!" Everyone had clearly heard the despair and regret in my voice.

He tilted his head a bit before the swat members pushed him into an police van.

The doctors grabbed my arms and pushed me onto the stretcher inside the ambulance. Tears filled my eyes. This was my fault and I had no idea what to do on the moment. Thanks to my crying, my strength wasn't as good as normally even though I could have never won against those doctors, but now I made it even easier.

Two held my on the stretcher while the other doctor grabbed a syringe out of a drawer inside the ambulance. I startled and used all my power to free myself, but it had no result.

The doctor squirted a little fluid from the syringe and put the syringe in my arm. I felt the liquid enter my body. First, my power disappeared. Then, the feeling in my body. And then, everything got blurry. I could feel the doctors letting go of my arms and covering my body with a blanket. The blanket had to be pulled over me from my feet to my face. But I never saw the blanket reach my chin. Everything turned black when it had only reached my knees.

**Author's Note:**

**Hey reader,**

**Well, a short chapter today. But in introduces a new adventure which will have more chapters from Snape's perspective.**

**See you next week**


	27. Wake up

The only thing I saw was darkness. My limbs and eyelids felt heavy. My head was dizzy. I had no idea if everything I experienced was a dream or reality. The only thing I was sure about was the urge in me to find out if it was a dream or not.

I slowly opened my eyes. A bright light shone in my eyes. I quickly closed them again and moaned. I wanted to move my body, but everything felt too giddy and heavy to do. I got myself to try to move, but the only thing in my body that moved were my vocal cords. The produced yet another moan.

I finally got the power to move my head to the side. I sighed when I did so. It had cost me a lot of strength and I felt exhausted. My head felt even more dizzy than before. It made me sleepy.

All strength disappeared from my muscles and I was still lying down. The only thing I had accomplished was turning my head. I really wanted to do more, but the sleepy feeling defeated the urge to do more things and I fell asleep.

I awoke again. My head was still turned to the side.

I still felt giddy and sleepy, but not enough to fall asleep again.

I opened my eyes leisurely and saw only blurry things. I blinked, but the blur didn't leave.

A black shadow appeared inf ront of me. It seemed to go and sit on something, but I couldn't see what or who it was.

"I think she is awake." I heard a low voice say. It sounded like it came from far away, but I knew it couldn't. The voice echoed in my head. I closed my eyes and tried to forget about it.

The muscles in my body still felt weak and stiff. The urge to move them had faded away just like my consciousness when they had injected me with something in that ambulance.

The back of my body felt that I was lying on something soft, but I didn't have the power to care about what it was.

The front of my body felt also something soft. It felt kind of heavy, but I couldn't care about this as well.

I turned my head to the other side and groaned. I opened my eyes again and saw another shadow. The blur had faded away a bit, but I still couldn't see who the shadow was.

"I think she is," a gently and high pitched voice responded. The voice sounded just as far away as the other voice had done.

"Do you call a doctor?" the low voice asked. The shadow, to whom I was looking, disappeared.

I closed my eyes again and was falling asleep when I felt something cold on my arm.

"Ellea, are you awake?" another voice asked.

I opened my eyes and saw even less blurry than before. I saw a woman standing next to me. She stood bent over me, her curled black hair hanging besides her black face. She wore a white coat and a black sweater underneath it.

She smiled at me and said: "I'm going to give you a medicine, so you will feel less dizzy."

She turned around and grabbed something from a cabinet in the corner. She turned back to me and I saw the syringe in her hand.

My eyes widened. A syringe. A medicine she had said. I didn't believe her. The last time someone injected something into me, it was bad.

"No, please no," I implored in a whispering voice. My throat was dry and the talking felt uncomfortable.

She smiled as if she was sorry for what she was going to do and said: "there's nothing to be afraid of, dear."

She came back to my bed and wanted to inject me in my arm, but I turned my arm. She looked at me in confusion.

"Please, I don't want the injection," I begged. I tried to get out of my bed, but my body was still stiff and didn't really wanted to cooperate.

The doctor pushed my shoulder back on the bed.

"I need to do this, for your own good." she said firmly. "Just let me go!" I shouted hoarsely.

I grabbed the side of the bed and wanted to pull myself away from her grip. A pair of hands grabbed my arm and other shoulder and pushed me back against the bed. It was a man who looked similar to the first shadow I had seen when I had woken up.

He was tall and his short brown hair was nicely cut. He was somewhere in his thirties and wore a blue suit with a tie. He frowned a bit, but it softened when he looked longer at my face. My eyes were filled with tears and the panic was visible all over my face.

"Let go of me!" I screamed desperately, knowing they wouldn't.

I tried to straighten myself, but the hands on my shoulders and arms prevented me from doing that.

"Please calm down!" the doctor said, trying to sound sweetly, but it sounded more like anger because of her firm grips on my body.

The panic hit me even more now I couldn't move. I had no idea what to do, so I started kicking the end of the bed. I started screaming and howling. Tears swirled down my cheeks. "Please let me go!" I shrieked.

"Get some help!" the doctor shouted over her shoulder to the person I had seen as the second shadow.

The second shadow appeared to be a woman. She must have been somewhere in her thirties, just like the man, but she looked a bit older. She wore a black jeans and a black leather jacket. Her ponytail swept around when she turned and ran away for help.

I still screamed and cried, but it didn't make the hands go away.

"No, please no. I will be nice, but no injections please!" I begged them, but no one answered or stopped pushing me to the bed. "Please!" I tried again, but yet again, I got no answer.

The woman returned with three other man who were wearing white nursing suits. The men ran to my bed and grabbed my arms and legs. The man and doctor let go of me.

More panic from my side. There was nothing left to move besides my head and mouth.

I was so confused. Who were all these people? What did that man and woman do next to my bed? Where was I even? In a hospital presumably, but I wasn't sure.

I had to be honest about my confusion, it was the last option I still had.

"Why are you doing this to me!? Why am I here!? I have done nothing wrong! Please explain! I am so confused! Please just let me go!" I entreated. The tears still dripped down my face.

The people looked at me. Nobody said something. Everyone had stiffened.

I stopped struggling and stared at them.

"Am I here because of what has happened with the police? Because of the anaesthetic? Or is it something else."

The doctor seemed confused, but let her hands of my body and straightened her back.

The dizzy feeling came back now I had stopped being so tensed. The whole room seemed to rotate.

"You are in this hospital, cause the doctors in the ambulance anesthetized you. We wanted you to have a reposeful place to wake up, but I didn't think we did it right." she explained.

I nodded, but felt sick. I had the feeling like I had to puke. And there it came. Through my throat, into my mouth. My hands covered my mouth quickly.

One of the male nurses quickly got a spit tray and placed it underneath my mouth. I puked everything in my stomach out. The crowd turned away, let go of my body and closed their eyes while I did so.

When I was done, the male nurse swapped the spit tray for a small towel. I wiped my mouth and said softly: "thank you." to the male nurse.

"You're welcome." he responded politely.

I realised that this was maybe the thing the doctor had told about. The reason why I needed the syringe. I still felt dizzy and nauseous and decided to ask the doctor about the syringe.

"Doctor, is this you were talking about? The reason why I need that syringe?"

"Yes." she simply replied, but it was enough for me.

"Can I still get the medicine?" I asked her, feeling the gastric acid in my throat. I felt so sick. If that medicine was really in that syringe, I needed it. But maybe it wasn't in the syringe. Maybe it was another anaesthetic, but I felt so sick. I needed to take it, my body told me so, but my head still refused. However, my body was in charge for now.

She smiled in return. "Of course you can."

She turned to the three male nurses and said: "thank you for your help. I think I can do it on my own again now." The men nodded and walked out of the room.

"Well," she sighed and got the syringe out of the pocket of her white coat.

She placed the injection my arm and looked at me when she was done.

"It wasn't that bad as you had expected, right?" she asked with a smile. She clearly thought I was afraid of syringes and she was kind of right. I had never feared them before, but that had changed.

"I wasn't afraid of the syringe," I lied.

"You weren't?" she asked surprised and not really believing it.

"No, I wasn't. But I can tell _you_ why I was so scared, but you have to keep listening to my whole story."

She nodded.

"They must leave." I added firmly and nodded to the man and woman who were still standing in the room. I misdoubted them. They looked like cops. And I hated those at the moment.

"Well, they are policemen. They have to stay at your side." the doctor said. I knew they wanted to hear what had happened at Severus's house. They thought I had been abducted. I decided to use that in my advantage.

I rolled my eyes at her statement, cause I hated it when people spied on me.

"I could tell you all, but only on my conditions."

The people looked at each other until the man asked mockingly: "and what are your conditions?"

"You listen at my complete story, you don't interrupt me and you don't put any anaesthetic stuff in my body if you don't believe it." I nearly shouted my last condition, but stayed calm.

"Deal," the woman said and grabbed a chair to sit next to my bed.

**Author's Note:**

**Hey reader!**

**In the future I will post some more chapters from Snape's perspective. I will tell you when they are available to read and I recommend checking it out if you want to create some more depth, for yourself, into the story.**

**See you next week.**


	28. One hell of a 'conversation'

"Well, it all started when I had heard my parents had died in a car crash. The cops took me to the police station to sleep there for the night. When we walked down the stairs, one of my neighbours stepped outside. She gave me a letter. She said my parents wanted me to have it if they died before I was old enough to hear it from them."

The three people in the room listened attentively and waited open-eyed for what I was going to say next.

"I read the letter at the police station. It said that Thomas Williams, the man of whom I have always thought to be my biological father, isn't my actual biological dad."

The doctor gasped a bit. She was shocked by my story, but the policemen didn't seem to show any emotions by my statement. Was this a everyday thing to her? Weird woman.

"It said that Severus Snape, the man of whom you all think is my abductor, is my actual biological father."

The policemen sighed. They had clearly already heard this from the doctors in the ambulance. I had yelled it there, but no one believed me at that time and now it didn't seem any different. The policemen scowled a bit, but tried to hide it. They didn't believe me. Their faces told me so, but I had to convince them.

"I was overwhelmed with emotions. I couldn't think clearly at the time. I decided to find him on my own. I hoped I could live with him, but in the end it wasn't as easy as I had expected. He didn't know of my existence, so that was a struggle in the beginning."

I sighed. The cops still scowled and didn't talk. The doctor still listened intently.

"Anyway, I got away from police and found him. He took me in. I had completely forgotten about everything, cause he is such a nice man and then you guys came."

I had left out so much. Everything about me being a witch, everything about my mom being a squib, everything about how my mom and Severus had met, so nearly all the information in the letter. I had also left out the part about Rowan, my escape from the railway station, my meeting with Dumbledore, everything about the magic in Severus home... And not to forget, exaggerate about his kindness would do good to the story, I supposed.

I realised a lot had happened, but what I told the doctor and the cops seemed enough. Telling them too much could be dangerous. It could put me or Severus in danger. He could go behind bars and I could be sent to an orphanage after all.

"So that's the whole story?" the woman asked irritated.

"Briefly." I replied politely.

"If it's true what you say, then how do you explain your suddenly disappearance from the railway station?" she questioned provoked.

"Running." I replied easily. That lie had come faster than I could have ever hoped for. She just nodded and left the answer for what it was.

She wanted to ask me another question, but I interrupted her wit: "Who are you all by the way?" I didn't want her to ask more questions. It could invalidate my lies, they wouldn't believe me again. Severus would disappear behind bars and would certainly go to that orphanage. Shivers went over my spine at the thought. He was innocent. It would all be my fault.

"I am officer Smith and he is officer Brown. We are two of the people who are put on your case." she replied monotonously. I nodded in satisfaction. Her answer confirmed what I had already expected.

"I still have a few questions," officer Brown said. Sweat appeared on my forehead. What was he going to ask?

"We searched the house..." he began.

_Oh no!_ I screamed inside my head.

He continued: "we saw all those weird books in his home. Books about magic…"

_How am I going to save myself out of this!?_ I asked myself.

He continued again: "didn't you think it was a bit weird? I mean magical potions and stuff?"

"I didn't really pay much attention to the books. I didn't get the time to read them," I answered. _You saved yourself!_ I thought. _For now…_

"And his way of dressing is pretty strange don't you think?" he tried again.

"Yes, he does. I have no idea why. I think he finds it comfortable or something, but who am I to judge his clothes?" I shrugged and looked at officer Smith who just nodded. The only thing I could think of was: _and she scores again! Another save movement! _It went better than I could have ever imagined!

"And the owls?" he tried another time.

"I feed them daily. They are his pets. A pretty strange hobby, but everyone has his hobbies, right?" I shrugged again and looked at officer Brown who narrowed his eyes.

"You are a clever one," he stated suspiciously.

I looked at him in confusion, but clearly understood what he meant with it. He knew I was lying.

"Uh, thanks, sir," I said and looked at the doctor who just looked at me with mixed expressions.

"You are lying," he said straight away. I looked at him with acted confusion, but my mind was panicking.

_What can I do now!?_ I freaked out in my mind. _Everything had gone so good! What the hell am I supposed to do now!?_

"Do you think we are stupid?" he asked irritated.

Good to know is that I can become an idiot when put under pressure, so I said: "Well, everybody is a bit stupid sometimes, but..."

"We found your mother's letter inside his house," he interrupted.

_I have lost_, I thought. _You can score some points, but that doesn't mean you have to win the match. Nobody ever cares about who has won the most battles, people only care about who has won the war. How am I going to save myself out of this battle?_

"Oh, okay. And?" I asked Brown.

"And we have read it," Smith joined in in the conversation.

"Okay," I said again.

"A witch, seriously?" she asked disbelievingly.

"I don't believe that either. She has always been a bit mentally unstable, but I have never expected she would come up with that crap," I lied.

The officers narrowed their eyes. "Don't you think it's a bit strange that we find books about magic in 'your father's' home and that your mother has written about those exact same things?" Brown asked compassionately now. I didn't know if he faked his tone or if he was truly compassionate about the situation.

"They both have things to do with magic apparently, but how do you know they talk about the exact same?" I asked Brown.

"That's because your mother speaks about a special flower in her letter. We found a book in one of his bookcase with information about the exact same flower," he explained.

"Really? But what's going on than?" I still acted as if I had no knowledge what's however.

"We think your mom believed and he still believes in some kind if cult thing, but we are not sure." he explained.

"And what's now going to happen with me?" I asked everyone in the room.

They looked at each other and Brown said: "we have a place you can live until we have found everything we need."

I nodded in agreement. I had no other choice than doing what they wanted. Severus was probably in some prison and I was alone.

"Where is he now?" I asked Brown.

"Who?" he asked.

"Severus Snape." I clarified monotonously.

"He is in a prison cell at the police station." He looked at his watch. "They are probably questioning him now," he added.

"Has he already said something?" I asked curiously. I hoped he would tell me what, then I could tune my story to his and everything would turn out alright.

"We can't tell you that. In the interest of research and privacy," Smith said. I nodded in response, but wasn't satisfied with her answer. I wanted to know what they knew. It would make things a lot easier for me, but I knew I couldn't get the information from them. It would only attract suspicion if I tried.

"You don't have to be afraid of him anymore. You are safe now. You never have to see him again if that's what you want. Just tell us the full story," Brown said compassionately.

I looked at him in acted confusion and knew he knew I was lying about everything.

"What do you mean? I have already told you the whole story," I said tensed.

"I know you know more than you are telling us, Ellea," he said irritated. I could nearly feel his scowl burn in my skin.

"I have told you everything I know, I swear!" I nearly shouted at him. My eyes filled itself with tears, fake ones of course. "Please believe me." I sobbed.

"That's enough." the doctor stated. "You two need to leave. She needs rest."

The officers frowned at that statement, but knew they had to leave, otherwise they would end up with a lot of trouble from the hospital later on.

Officer Brown walked to the door and said: "do you know what I think? Option one, you are raised with the thought that magic really exists. Your mother and Snape were part of a cult and now she is dead, a member of the cult had to take care of you and he took it. Maybe he is your biological father, we don't know, but we will find out later. Or option two, you are abducted by him after your parents had died. A member of the cult had to take care of you. Cult members care for each other, right?" he asked as if I would answer, but I didn't. "Maybe you didn't like living with him, but created a severe form of Stockholm syndrome, we don't know, but don't worry, we will find out," he said darkly. "Or, option three, the last option, it went just like you said and everything appears to be one big, strange coincidence." He looked at Smith. They both grinned. "A bit unlikely don't you think?" he scoffed.

"We will reveal your lies, 'witch'." They both chuckled at that one. "Mark my words, you piece of magic carpet. I will expose you," he said slowly and trappy. The both of them laughed and walked out of the room.

They walked out of the corridor. I could hear smith say derisively: "let's get our broomsticks and fly to the station." They laughed loudly at her joke.

The sound of laughter faded away by every second, until there was nothing left. Only the doctor and I were left.

"They were so rude," the doctor said and prepared the syringe for an injection.

"Rude? More like unbearable," I said. The doctor nodded in agreement.

"I believe you," she said and injected me with the medicine, which I still found to be scary, but I knew I needed it apparently and she could know, she was the doctor.

"Thank you," I responded sweetly. It felt bad I had to lie to her. She was such a nice woman. But I had to do it. Not only for myself, but also for Severus. I didn't want him to end up in prison. And certainly not for my mistakes.

"Take your rest. I think you need it after that unendurable conversation and everything that has happened before that." I smiled at her in response. She smiled back.

"I will watch over you when you take some rest. I will make sure those jerks don't come back soon."

I smiled and said: "thank you Ms..."

"you can call me Safiya," she finished my sentence. "Now take your rest," she said as she walked out of the room and closed the door.

"Wow..." I sighed. _That was a hell of a conversation._

**Author's Note;**

**Hey reader!**

**Like I had already mentioned in last week's chapter, there are coming more chapters from Snape's perspective. Those chapter's are linked to the ones in this story. This chapter has one from Snape's point of view. It's chapter two in the story ****_The Magical Daughter (Snape's perspective_****), which you can find in the stories I have written. If you want to create some more depth into the story and/or if you want to read a small Snape story next to this one, I recommend you to check it out. I hope you enjoy.**

**I have to remind you that if I post a chapter from Snape's point of view, there will be no chapter(s) next week. Writing both the chapters (Snape's perspective and Ellea's perspective) costs a lot of time, so I need the time to write another chapter from Snape's perspective and one for Ellea's.**

**Don't forget to leave a review. I appreciate them really much! Thank you!**

**So, I hope I see you in two weeks again!**


	29. And moving again

I was so tired. However, couldn't sleep. I worried about Severus' well-being. Hopefully he was doing all right. Hopefully the police weren't too hard on him. Hopefully he was physically and mentally well. Hopefully everything would turn out fairly good. Hopefully...

He probably needed help. And he wasn't the only one. We needed help.

I think Dumbledore isn't going to save me this time. Why would he?, was what haunted my mind all the time. We were on our own now.

I wanted to go out of this bed and go and get Severus out, but I knew I couldn't. I didn't stand a chance against an entire police station. And did Severus on his own?

I blinked and felt how tired I was. Sleep. I needed sleep.

"Do you want something to eat, darling?" a woman asked nicely. I hadn't noticed her at all, which indicated how off world I was. She wore a white pants and a white blouse. A nurse I supposed. Her long, blonde hair in a ponytail swept as she moved her head to talk.

I looked at the clock above the door. It was already a half past 5.

"Yes, please," I replied politely.

"We have rice with chicken today," she said while picking a plate of a cart. She handed me a plate and said: "enjoy your meal."

"Thank you," I simply responded.

The nurse walked out of the room and pushed her cart further down the corridor.

I took a bite of the rice and chicken. It tasted good. Not quite as good as how my dad, Thomas always made it, but it was still quite good.

Dad, Thomas, how would I call him from now on? He is my dad, but at the same time he is not. Do I need to call Severus 'dad' from now on? No, no, we have already discussed that and neither of us finds that to be comfortable, I thought.

How would he be? I hope he is all right. He is probably very mad at me. I frowned at that thought. How am I ever going to solve this mess?

I finished my supper while thinking about life and my problems. Self-pity. How deep had I sunk?

When I had finished, I placed my plate on the nightstand besides my bed and waited for the nurse to come and retrieve it.

She came a moment later and greeted me. I said 'hello' in return. She picked up the plate and wanted to walk to her cart, but I stopped her from doing that with one single question: "how long do I have to stay here?"

"I believe you may leave tomorrow morning. People will come to pick you up."

"What people?"

"Policemen," she simply replied and walked out of the room, to her cart, and disappeared in the maze of corridors again.

People would come for me. Policemen would come for me. I shivered at the thought. I had always liked policemen, but now I hated them. Why couldn't they just believe my lies? They weren't that far-fetched, right?

I lay back on my bed and thought about life again. Memories from the past. Memories from me, mom and my dad Thomas. Memories of us going to the beach. My dad and I would make a hill of sand and when it became flood tide, we would stand on the hill and watch how long our hill would stand against the sea. I smiled at the thought. We had been so happy together. And now, everything was gone.

I retrieved more memories from my mind over the evening. It made me larky and aggrieved at the same time.

I looked at the clock. Eight o'clock. I sighed. How would Severus be right now? Would he have already eaten? I worried about him.

I would have told him if I hadn't forgotten about it. I'm so stupid! How could I forget telling him I was kind of missing? I frowned, feeling regretful, sad and angry at the same time.

We need help. His magic can't save us out of this one. Too much, how did he call them? Oh right, muggles. Too much muggles around. And I won't be surprised if they have confiscated his wand. I wondered what I could do and then I remembered Dumbledore again. He has saved me ones, maybe he would do it a second time. It's worth a shot, right?

I knew I had already thought about asking him for help, but I was so pessimistic at that moment. Now, I was more open to ideas. There had to be a solution. There always was.

"Dumbledore can say 'yes' or 'no'. Just give it a try," I told myself out loud.

But how can I contact him? The owls are at home... I frowned in confusion. Had I just called Severus' house 'home'? I frowned even more. I had never realized how much I had become attached to living with him. Strange, cause he didn't seem that attached to me at all.

Anyway... the owls. Where are they? I can't contact Dumbledore without them. I lay my head back on the pillow and thought about possible solutions for the problem.

I came to the conclusion to act like I was really concerned about their wellbeing- not that I wasn't, but I needed exaggerate it-. Maybe the cops would than tell me where they were. Than I could go to them and let one of them deliver the letter. I nodded in agreement with a small grin on my face.

But what if they don't tell me? I realised. I can't travel to the Wizarding World by myself. I have no idea how to get there, aside of that teleporting from Severus. Maybe one of Severus' books would explain it to me, but the cops would never let me read those. Asking if I could read them, wasn't that good for my cover as well. I told them I didn't believe in magic, why would I want to read one of those books than? I shook my head. Bad idea. If I couldn't find Rowan or Luka, we had to fix it on our own. Severus for himself and I for myself.

The deep thoughts made me sleepy. I looked at the clock. Nine o'clock. Time to sleep.

I pulled at a cord next to the bed. The lights in my room went out.

Strangely enough, sleeping was very easy and the night had felt comfortable and needed. A nurse had woken me up for breakfast, which had kind of felt irritating, since it always felt irritatingly when someone woke me up.

She had gotten me some tea and some slices of toast, which I enjoyed gratefully.

The nurse wanted to push her cart with food further into the corridor, but she turned around, looked at me and said: "oh, before I forget, I have got your clothes." She got my clothes from the cart and put them on the end of my bed, clean and smelling like roses.

"Thank you," I said to her with a small smile.

I ate my breakfast in silence and enjoyed the tea. The heat filled my belly. I had always liked that feeling.

How would… My mind took a pause out of confusion.

Did I just call him 'dad'? This needs to stop. Yes, he is my biological father, but he isn't my... well, he kind of... My mind took a pause again.

What is happening to me!? I have never loved him! I have never thought I ever would. I was too overwhelmed by everything... I have never realised I started caring about him this much. His wellbeing has haunted me through the last two days! Why!? I just know him for such a short time! How could I start loving someone that much after such a short time! Just be real, Ellea! Stop thinking about him so much! He is an adult and you are a child! HE should be thinking about YOU if he likes YOU so much as you apparently like him!

I took another pause to calm down. Maybe he does. Maybe he thinks about me too... but probably not. Why would he? Why would he love me that much? He barely knows me.

Sadness spread through my body. I took another sip of my tea.

Because he is your father after all, a little voice in my mind replied.

No, that's not it... well, maybe... no... don't think so, I thought while waving my hand as if I could have waved the thought away with my hand. He is my father, why wouldn't he love me? Because he knows me for short? That's not how fatherly love works... right?

I became insecure. I wasn't sure about a lot of things, but didn't get the time to become certain. The police entered the room.

"Hey," Smith said as if nothing had happened before. I narrowed my eyes and suspected her of misleading me.

Stupid cop. Trying to get something out of me by playing my friend? Do you think I'm stupid? You were gruff last time I saw you. What kind of tactic are you doing, Mrs.?

"How are you doing?" she asked politely as she walked to my bedside.

"Good," I replied just as politely as she had done.

Now I saw officer Brown leaning against the door post. He looked charming in his blue suit and brown leather shoes, but I knew better by now.

He stared at me and said: "time to get dressed, kid."

I did like he had said and got out of bed, grabbed my clothes and looked at them. They looked at me in expectation and waited for me to pull out my green hospital gown and get into my clothes, but the only thing I did was frowning at them.

"Can I get a bit of privacy?" I snarled.

They looked at each other and nodded. They walked out of the room and closed the door.

Ugh, I had to ask for some privacy. And they had had to think about that! Am I that big of a deal to them?

I dressed myself and walked out of the room. Smith and Brown were already waiting for me in front of the door.

"Done?" Brown asked a bit irritated.

I frowned. "Yes," I replied as irritated as he was.

"Let's go then," he said bluntly and walked down the corridor. Smith and I followed.

**Author's Note:**

**Hey reader!**

**This chapter has a chapter from Snape's point of view as well. It's chapter three in the story ****_The Magical Daughter (Snape's perspective)_****, which you can find in the stories I have written. If you want to create some more depth into the story and/or if you want to read a small Snape story next to this one, I recommend you to check it out. I hope you enjoy.**

**I have to remind you that if I post a chapter from Snape's point of view, there will be no chapter(s) next week. Writing both the chapters (Snape's perspective and Ellea's perspective) costs a lot of time, so I need the time to write another chapter from Snape's perspective and one for Ellea's.**

**See you later!**


	30. Williamstreet

The corridor was long. I looked into many rooms as passed them. Some patients were sleeping. Others were staring blankly at strange places in their room. Everyone was different, but also the same. Everyone was here because something was wrong with them and they would be released if their problem was solved, but I was the odd one out. I had the feeling that my problem was only getting started.

We rounded the corner and walked down another corridor. A black woman in a white coat walked out of the offices and walked into my direction. It was the doctor I had seen yesterday, the one who had introduced herself as Safiya.

"Hey," I greeted her as she wanted to pass me.

"Oh, hey there," she said surprised. "I'm sorry, I hadn't seen you. How are you today, dear?"

"Great. I can go now."

"I know, dear." She looked at the officers and scowled a bit, then returned her gaze at me. "I hope you will find where you are looking for in life, dear," she said sweetly.

"I hope you have already found yours." I replied We both smiled and shook hands.

"I hope I never see you again," she said with a grin.

I frowned in confusion.

"This is a hospital, remember? If you need to come here, it's mostly not for a good thing."

I nodded in understanding.

"Goodbye, Ellea."

"Goodbye, Safiya."

Safiya turned around and walked down the corridor without looking back. I stared at her doing so until someone interrupted me.

Smith snorted. "Seems like you have made quite in impression on her," she stated sneeringly.

I couldn't help but respond to it like I hadn't heard her comment.

We walked further until we had reached the elevator. Brown pressed the button and we waited for the elevator to come.

After a moment, the doors opened. Two heavily chatting doctors and a nurse stepped out. I watched them walking down the corridor until a hand firmly pushed me into the elevator. I stood between Smith and Brown. It made me feel very uncomfortable. Not only because they were unfriendly people, but also because standing so close to someone you don't know is always a bit uncomfortable, right?

Brown pushed the button for the ground floor and the doors closed.

The elevator went down and I thought it was the right moment to ask about the owls.

"How are the owls doing? Does someone take care of them?" I asked a bit too worried.

The officers looked at each other and Brown said: "they are okay, no need to worry." He sounded a bit polite. What were they doing? Good cop / bad cop? But you can't be both roles at the same time then. What?

"Are they still at-" I took a small pause. I needed to choose the next word very carefully. "-Snape's house?"

"Yes, they are. A neighbour takes care of them," he answered curtly and looked at me in expectation of a response. I felt his gaze burning into the side of neck. I turned my head around to face him. His blue eyes seemed to look right into my soul and to know all my secrets, but I knew he couldn't. We stared at each other, hoping the other one would say something, but neither of us said a word.

A loud bell sound. The silver doors opened. We had reached the ground floor. It was crowdy. People with flamboyant flowers walked through the big hall. Nurses and doctors in white clothes. People on benches with IV-drips in their arms, looking at the people who passed them- enjoying the absent company.

Smith stepped out first. Brown and I followed. We walked through the big hall. I looked up and saw bridges above my head. People walked over them, going to their destinations in the hospital. It kind of impressed me. The size. All the people. Overall, a very modern hospital.

My reverie was interrupted by Smith. "I'm sure you want to know where we are going."

I nodded absently, still looking at the bridges above my head.

"You are going to the family of an officer, nut don't worry. He's a good friend of us." She gestured to herself and Brown who nodded in agreement.

"And where does he live?" I asked curiously. Maybe there was a chance I could go to the owls and send a letter to Dumbledore for help.

"He lives in Williamstreet. It's not in Cokeworth. Another village, I believe."

A disappointment. How could I ever reach the owls? Would the village be close to Cokeworth?

An idea appeared in my mind: _Where am I now, actually?_ I looked at Brown and asked him my question.

"We are in Roneworth. A big city near Cokeworth," he replied vacantly.

We walked out of the hospital, a large parking place in front of the hospital greeted us.

Smith still walked in front and let us to their car. A shining black one. It didn't look like a police car and it didn't have sirens on the roof. Strange. Police without a police car?

Brown seated himself behind the wheel. Smith looked at me- in the backseat- from the passenger seat.

"Don't touch the stuff next to you," She demanded firmly.

I nodded.

Next to me stood a closed box. Just a brown, cardboard box and I wondered what it would contain. I kept wondering about it, especially since I had nothing better to do.

Most roads were country lanes next to meadows or forests or crops. The forests and crops looked all the same, but the meadows were all different. Some had cows. Others had horses. Beautiful black horses. At least, the view wasn't boring.

"Has Snape already said something?" I asked inquisitively. I hoped they would tell me, but I had the feeling they wouldn't.

"You know we can't tell you," Brown replied while he turned the wheel. "But maybe you can start telling something."

I startled. I knew they knew I was lying, but I hadn't expected them to start questioning me like this.

"I have already told you everything I know," I responded monotonously. I saw in the rear view mirror that he frowned.

"We know you are lying. Just tell us. You can trust us," he said, trying to sound friendly, but it sounded ominously to me.

"Do you have proof that I'm lying?" I asked him angrily.

Brown looked at Smith. They both frowned.

"No, no we don't," he finally said.

"Then shut up." I quietly said and no one reacted to it. Only silence after what I had said and enjoyed it. It made Brown and Smith feel uncomfortable, which made me enjoy it even more.

Brown parked the car in a sweet looking street. The houses looked nothing like the ones in Cokeworth. These were more colourful. The houses were all different. Different kind of bricks, different kinds of window frames, different kinds of roof tiles, nothing seemed the same. It gave a nice feeling to the street.

Brown walked to one of the houses. It looked nice. The red bricks stood out among all the dark bricks of the other houses and the white window frames reflected the sunlight.

Brown wanted to knock on the door, but it opened before his hand had even touched the door. A friendly looking man stood in the doorway.

"Hey, Sam," the man said to Brown.

"Hey, Tom," Brown responded.

Smith and Brown took off their coats and hung them on the coat rack.

"Good morning, Tess," the man said friendly to Smith. She nodded in response.

"And you must be Ellea," he said nicely.

"Yes, sir," I responded politely.

He smiled. "You are raised very well. You can just call me Tom." He seemed a like nice man, but I could trust no one at this point.

I heard some giggling on the end of the corridor and saw three little heads around the doorpost. They pulled their heads back when I looked at them.

"Those are my children: Amy, Hannah and John. I'm sure you will become friends."

I doubted that since making friends takes time and I wasn't planning to stay for long.

"Let's go to the living room," Tom suggested.

The living room had nice matching furniture and not as eclectic as at Severus' house. Some toys lay on the floor. A little boy was playing with them. A brown haired woman sat on the couch, accompanied by two girls. They looked a bit younger than me.

"Good morning, Yara," Brown greeted the woman. She responded with a quick 'hey' before she stood up from the couch and walked to me.

"You must be Ellea," the woman said to me.

"Yes, ma'am," I said to her while shaking her hand. She raised her eyebrows and looked at Tom.

"I know," he simply said. "If she can do it than why can't ours?" The woman just shrugged.

She returned her attention to me and said: "you can just call me Yara. Do you all want something to drink?"

"Yes, please," Smith replied and the woman went to the kitchen.

The two girls on the couch were whispering to each other. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I knew they were talking about me.

"Don't whisper, girls. You both know that isn't polite," Tom said strictly.

The girls stopped whispering and split up. One approached me and introduced herself. "My name is Amy," she said nicely. She wiped her brown hair out of her face and smiled malignantly. She gave me a last look and walked towards her mom in the kitchen before I could even introduce myself to her.

The other girl approached me and said: "my name is Hannah."

"Hey, my name is..."

She interrupted me with: "I know."

_Note to myself: no chance to befriend the girls_, I thought to myself.

Hannah gave me the same malicious smile as her sister had given me. Jitters glided over my spinal as she did so. Hannah did the same as her sister and walked to the kitchen.

"Take a seat," Tom said politely to the all of us, which meant the start of a very awkward conversation.

**Hey reader!**

**Snape's story continues too! A new chapter in his own story alongside this story. It's chapter four in the story ****_The Magical Daughter (Snape's perspective)_****, which you can find in the stories I have written. If you want to create some more depth into the story and/or if you want to read a small Snape story next to this one, I recommend you to check it out. I hope you enjoy.**

**I have to remind you that if I post a chapter from Snape's point of view, there will be no chapter(s) next week. Writing both the chapters (Snape's perspective and Ellea's perspective) costs a lot of time, so I need the time to write another chapter from Snape's perspective and one for Ellea's.**

**See you later!**


	31. Shepherd's Pie magic …

We seated ourselves on the couch and in the nice red armchairs. On that moment, Yara came back in with her girls. She placed the tea on the coffee table on seated herself next to her husband on the couch. The girls went playing with their brother and pretended not to pay attention to us.

"So, I have heard you are from London," Yara started. "That must be quite different from here, isn't it?" Tom gave her a disapproving look, but said nothing.

"yes, it is. Less crowdy," I replied in a monotonous way.

"I understand. Less shops and so on," she commented.

Silence. Very uncomfortable silence.

"Girls, why don't you go and show Ellea your room?" Smith asked.

The girls looked to her and walked to the door, I followed.

Their room was on the first floor. A normal girls room. Very pink. Not my taste. A bunk bed, a desk, two wardrobes and a mattress on the ground.

"You sleep on the mattress on the ground," Hannah said firmly.

I nodded and looked out the window. I saw other houses. Nothing special actually, but everything was better than talking with them.

"So you have magical powers?" Amy asked mockingly.

I looked at her in confusion. How could she know that? Only the police knew a bit about the magic thing... the police. I remembered I could trust no one.

"Show me," Amy demanded.

"I can't do magic," I stated firmly. Lying. What else could I do?

She frowned. "My dad said you think you can, so do it," she tried again.

"I have never said I can." I told her politely.

"Whatever. A witch who doesn't want to do magic, how pathetic." She and her sister laughed, even though It wasn't that funny at all.

"You are just insane. But don't try anything tonight. Hannah does karate and she won't mind to kick your ass."

"What would I try?" I asked her, even though I knew she meant trying to kill them or something.

"Oh, I don't know! Trying to curse us or kill us!" she nearly shouted.

"I would never kill you, don't worry. And I can't do magic. I just told you," I told her monotonously and walked out of the room. I was done with their stupid behaviour. I found out I just couldn't stand those girls. So arrogant, so dumb, so easy to hate. Bu staying polite was the best I could do. And denying of course.

I walked down the stairs, through the corridor, but stopped in front of the door to the living room. I had heard someone say my name.

The door was ajar, so I listened to their conversation.

"So nothing? You got no information out of him?" I heard Tom ask.

"No, nothing usable," I heard Brown reply.

"But what did you get?" Tom asked.

"Well, he told us he has lived in that house his whole life. We checked it and that's right. We have got nothing more."

I smiled. I knew Severus wouldn't talk to them. We had both done a great job till so far, cause the officers were clearly frustrated by it.

"And the questioning in the neighbourhood? Nothing?" Yara asked a bit panicky.

"The people in his street say he isn't that much at home. Only during the holidays. We are going to ask him where he stays in between."

I smiled again. I knew where he went between the holidays, but would never tell them and I knew Severus would do the same.

"Come on! You can't tell me he isn't saying a thing! Aren't you guys pressurizing him!?" she asked more irritated now.

"We are doing everything we can, but that psycho doesn't release a thing! We let him get some sleep in a prison cell without pillows, blankets or any kind of comfort, he hasn't had the opportunity to wash himself in days, we even tried to make a deal with him, but nothing works! We are breaking all kinds of rules for this case, but it still doesn't work! He keeps his mouth shut! Just like that awful girl!" Brown shouted at Yara.

My jaw dropped. They had been torturing him. If I just hadn't been so dumb, I could have known the police was still searching for me at that time. All of this could have been avoided.

"Why would she lie? You are on her side," Yara said a bit nicer than before.

"I don't know yet. We can only guess," he replied sadly.

A little silence occurred in the room, but Yara broke it. "Maybe her story is just the truth," she said silently.

"The truth!? The truth!? Really!? She is clearly lying! I am an officer, remember!? I'm trained to see when people are lying and that girl is obviously lying!" he yelled at Yara.

Smith had been very silent during the conversation, but jumped in now.

"Calm down, Sam," Smith said comforting, but Brown couldn't have it.

He jumped out of his seat and shouted: "Calm down!? How could you even be so calm!? We are going to lose our jobs if we don't solve this case. They are never going to forgive us for braking so much rules if we don't succeed!"

Smith jumped out of her armchair too and grabbed his cheeks with her small hands.

"We still have one day, remember?" she asked him in the same comforting way. "We can do a lot in one day." She smiled.

_1 day? Because they have nothing against him of course. No evidence he is an abductor or whatever. 1 day and all of this will be over._

"We are going to ask Ellea," Tom said. Brown and Smith turned around to look at him.

"That sounds like a good idea, Tom," Smith said. "We have to go now. We come back tomorrow morning,"

I felt hands on my upper arms. They pulled me back to the stairs. I pulled my arms back to body and saw Amy and Hannah. They gestured to ran upstairs. I heard footsteps in the living room. Good time to go indeed. We ran upstairs, to their room. Hannah closed the door behind us and we were alone in their room.

"So, why were you eavesdropping on them?" Amy asked strictly.

"They were talking about me," I said honestly.

"Yeah, we heard that..."

Footsteps in the corridor.

"Thanks for letting her stay here," I heard Smith say.

"That's okay, you know that," Yara responded politely.

I heard the front door open and close again. Brown and Smith were gone. I sighed. Them gone meant time for relief. My relief didn't stay unnoticed.

"Why are you so relieved?" Amy asked strictly. "Don't you like them?"

"Not particularly," I answered monotonously. I noticed I spoke monotonously quite a lot. Apparently, there were also other similarities between me and Severus. Other than appearance.

"Why not?" she asked curiously.

"Don't ask so much questions," I snarled to her. Too much questions? Another thing Severus hated too. First it was comforting to find another similarity between us, but now it freaked me out. I didn't know if it was a good thing to have similarities with him.

Amy frowned in surprise. "You don't have to act so toplofty. You should be thankful for everything we do for you. You are allowed to sleep in our room, eat from our plates..." she started, but I interrupted her.

"It's not your decision, Amy. It's your parents', so shut up and don't act like a mean girl."

"a mean girl? Me?" she asked sarcastically and looked at her sister. The both of them laughed. "We aren't acting like mean girls. You are just unthankful and delusional."

"I can't blame you for acting that way," I said without any emotion in my voice.

They looked in confusion.

"It's hard to suppress what you are." I smiled virulently, turned around and walked out of the room.

I walked downstairs- to the living room-. Tom and Yara sat on the couch in complete silence. They looked at up at me when I came in.

"Hey," Yara said with a fake smile on her face.

"Hey" I responded.

What followed was an uncomfortable silence. We all knew I had heard them talking.

"I'm going to cook. Want to help?" she asked.

"Sure," I replied to escape the uncomfortableness.

Yara got off the couch and walked towards the kitchen. "I have already prepared everything before you came here, so we only have to cook it," she explained. "We are going to make Shepherd's Pie. We only have to put the ingredients in the oven dish. Then we put that in the oven. And then we're done."

"Did you ever do this before? Making Shepherd's Pie?" she asked curiously.

"No, but I saw my mom making it once," I answered honestly. _How stupid, Ellea. That's actually what she wants. Now she has a reason to start about your family_, I thought right after it.

"Was she a good cook? Your mom?" she asked.

"Average, I think. Are you?"

"I don't know. Tell me after supper."

Yara opened the plastic boxes with ingredients and explained what I had to do.

I did just like she had explained and things went fine until she started talking again.

"It must be hard for you. Losing your parents. And then that thing with... how do you call him?"

"Severus." I replied honestly.

"Well, that thing with Severus. What is it actually?"

_Very well played. You try to do this unnoticed, don't you? Playing dirty, right? I know how to play dirty too, Yara._

"He appears to be my biological father. My mom wrote it in a letter addressed to me." Technically I wasn't lying, it was the truth.

"So you went to his home? Or did he come to you?" she tried.

"I went to his home," I replied honestly again.

"Impressive you did it all by yourself," she complimented me. I smiled. She smiled in return. She must have thought I smiled because of her kindness, but I smiled because I knew too well what she was up to.

"So all the claims of the police aren't true?"

"They aren't."

"But why won't they listen to you? Is your story so strange to them?"

"apparently."

She asked to many questions. She had to stop.

"So there's nothing with an abduction or something?"

"No."

"You know you are safe now, right? You can say everything you want to say. You never have to go back there if you tell what happened," Yara said sweetly, but I scowled in response.

"So you don't believe me either? Fine. Then you don't. Your problem. But that man is my father and I will go back and live with him if you like it or not!"

Yara had stiffened.

"No questions anymore!? Did you lose your tongue!? You want to know more, don't you!? Just ask me now, cause tomorrow I will be gone! Yes, I have heard you and the officers talk. You guys have nothing! And there is nothing to get! My story is the truth!" I threw the empty bowl, I had in my hand, on the kitchen counter. Luckily, it was a plastic one. Otherwise the place would be littered with broken glass, but I was actually a bit disappointed it wasn't a glass one, cause now my statement had a lesser impact.

I scowled at her. Yara just looked confused. She looked at the bowl on the counter and then back at me.

"Why are..." she couldn't finish her sentence.

"Just shut up!" I yelled at her. My face turned red. Adrenaline rushed through my veins. Why couldn't those stupid people just shut up! I wasn't going to tell them anything and they had to know that by now. I was too afraid they would notice something odd about the story. What if I made a mistake and changed my story a bit? How would I save myself out of that one?

"But..." Yara started and again, but she couldn't finish her sentence, cause I yelled: "Just shut up!" More adrenaline now. More stress. More emotion.

And then... BOOM! The Shepherd's Pie exploded. Food all over the walls and ceiling. The remnants of the pie dripped off our clothes.

We looked in utter confusion at the oven dish. "What did..." she looked at me, but now it was her own fault she couldn't finish her sentence.

I knew what was happening. It was me. Well, my powers... my magic. But I couldn't tell her that. I decided in a brief second it would be the best if I just left the scene, so I just turned around to walk away, but was stopped by a tall man, Tom.

"What is going on here?" he asked confused.

"Nothing anymore. We are done," I replied monotonously and passed him to walk out of the kitchen. I ignored the mess that was dripping down the walls, which was hard since it was literally everywhere.

Tom didn't try to stop me from walking away. Neither did Yara. Better they didn't. I would have gone completely mad if they had tried and more things would have gone wrong. Who knew what could happen. I could have blown up the complete house maybe. Who knew. Who knew.

"I'm going for a walk," I said to Tom and Yara while I walked to the corridor. I didn't turn around, but felt their gazes in my back.

I passed the stairs. The two girls sat on the steps and looked at me in silence. I just looked back at them, grabbed my coat, opened the door and walked out.

**Author's Note:**

**Hey reader!**

**There is also a new chapter for ****_The Magical Daughter (Snape's perspective)_**** story, which you can find in the stories I have written. It's chapter five. And there will be no chapter(s) next week due to this.**

**I think you have heard this so many times already, but I feel the need to say it. We are in a difficult time right now. Not only my country, not only my continent, the whole world is in big trouble. In the statistics of my story I can see that the readers of this story are all over the world. We hope we will get out of this Corona-crisis and quarantine is one way to help mastering it. I hope I can make your quarantine a bit nicer by uploading these chapters.**

**I want to give some special hope to the Italian guest-reader who has already been giving me reviews from the beginning of this story. I hope you are doing fine. I hope your family is doing fine. I can't imagine how your life must be right now. I only see the situation in your country on television and I feel already bad by seeing it. Your life must be turned upside down, but don't worry. We, as world, will get through this. Stay strong!**


	32. Catwoman

It was raining outside. I hadn't noticed when I was working on supper with Yara.

I stepped into the rain and felt raindrops falling on my head and dripping down my face. I liked the feeling. The drops on my coat dripped down and fell on the wet ground.

I walked down the street. The rain wetted my jeans, but I couldn't care, so I soaked further.

The houses in the streets were all different. Big, small, black, white, floral gardens and not so floral gardens. I looked at them, but actually didn't care. I wanted to go to somewhere I felt more alone, instead of feeling watched by the people in the houses.

I walked through another street and found myself at the edge of the village. The view was nice. Meadows with cows and sheep. Ditches between some rectangles of grass. And at the far end, the edge of a forest.

A walk in the forest seemed nice. Clearing my head while looking at the light that coming through the leaves.

I walked over a road next to a ditch. The water was dirty and covered with duckweed. I imagined how I would feel if I pushed one of the officers into it. It would make me smile for sure.

Reaching the forest edge wasn't a big achievement, but I felt like I had climbed a mountain.

I walked over a created path through the woods. The leaves of the trees hung over it. Some sunlight shone through the holes, just like I had imagined it.

The last time I had been in a forest was with Severus to search for ingredients for his potions.

_With Severus_, I thought sadly. _But everything will be over by tomorrow._

I had not even noticed it had stopped raining. My jeans was still soaked. But I noticed nothing of my surroundings right now. I was too deep in reverie.

_How would he do? Those people have tortured him. Questioning him in the middle of the night. Not letting him sleep. Not letting him wash himself. Those people. Those horrible people. I would avenge Severus by succeeding in not letting the police know any information. My revenge will be sweet. So sweet... Their irritated faces- the faces of losers- would give me a good feeling. Who said revenge couldn't be sweet?_

_Would they break Severus before tomorrow? Would he know it is over by tomorrow? How would he do? And why am I thinking about him so much? I know I have already thought about this in the hospital, but do I really like him that much? Or is it because it is kind of my fault we are in this situation? I don't know._

I sighed. There was a lot I didn't know. About my magic things for example. What has just happened_..._

_I have blown up the complete dish! I have blown up some things in the past, but never food._ A smile appeared on my face. The thought made me partly happy and partly woeful. I had no idea how to handle my powers... my magical powers. They were good and bad at the same time. Predictable and unpredictable. magnificent and ugly. And Severus said they would be shaped when I was older. At a school, 'Hogwarts'.

_Hogwarts. How would that look like? Would I get a wand just like Severus? That would be cool._

I walked further into the forest. My jeans felt a bit dryer. I had no idea for how long I had already been walking, but I had no intentions in walking back to that house yet. I had to get back at a certain point, cause otherwise the officers couldn't pick me up and reunite me with Severus, but I could get back later. Later.

_How would he react when he sees me? Angry? Very likely. Happy to see me? Maybe, but probably not. Praise me for my good job at keeping my mouth shut about all the magic? Very unlikely._ Snape wasn't the person to mess with, so he would probably be angry at everything. The police, me and everything that would cross his path the upcoming days.

I sighed. _I would probably do the same if I was in his position._

I imagined Severus in a prison cell like I had been in at the beginning of my search. Alone. Cold. Exhausted due to a lack of sleep. And feeling dirty, because he couldn't wash himself. The thought was horrible.

Walking past a green bush, I noticed something growing underneath, a small green plant, plantain. I kneeled down at to examine the plant.

I remembered plantain was a remedy to nettle. Severus had taught me that when we had been looking for ingredients for his potions. I remembered I had accidentally touched nettle. He had cured it with plantain.

Severus was a good man for sure. However, I was also sure a lot of people wouldn't notice that behind his facade of gruffness. People normally don't take the time to learn to know someone. They have their judgment ready immediately after seeing someone. In Severus case, people had to take the time to see his good intentions, but most people are not used to do that. I didn't know, but I could imagine he had not many friends. Sad. Cause Severus would make a good friend. And everyone needed friends. I could only guess how lonely he sometimes must have felt.

I missed him. I hoped he missed me too. I hoped he liked me in the way I liked him. As family. But I was nearly sure he didn't. Severus was aloof and I wasn't sure if he had already made a start in liking me, even though he worried about my wellbeing sometimes.

Severus had worried about me when I wanted to fly on a broomstick. He had worried about me when I wanted to know about the Dark Arts. I felt delight all over my body when I realised that he had to feel something about me if he was so worried.

Severus had cared for me and actually tried to make me feel comfortable in his house and around him. He had taken me to the woods to teach me things about plants. He had let me read all of his books. He had even given me my own room to sleep. And not to forget, he had shown me his basement full of precious potion stuff...

The basement! I hoped the police had not found the basement, cause that would be a disaster. All kinds of magical things were down there. Things like the unicorn hair and the other stuff he had shown me. What would the police do with that kind of stuff? Examine it? Keep him longer in custody? That was a likely consequence. However, the officers had said they would release him tomorrow, so it was unlikely they had found it.

_But what have they found besides his books?_ I knew he had a broomstick, but would that thing fly without the use of magic? Probably not.

_What would he have more? What kind of magical things would he have in his house?_ He had his wand of course. He always had it in his pocket. The police would have it now. That was for sure. But they couldn't do something with it... right?

_How would wands actually work? Would a wand only work for magical people or also for non-magical people? How did Severus call those people... Muggles?_ I thought about it for a while.

_Would I get my own wand?_ I wondered. _That would be cool._

Trees grew closer together as I went further into the forest. Trees got more and more branches and less light could reach the ground through the leaves.

In the distance I could see the end of the path. An open circle filled with nice, green grass on which the dew of the just fallen rain sparkled in the sunlight.

I decided to stop my walk there and take a well-deserved pause.

Reaching the place wasn't a big challenge, but staying there felt harder. I had the feeling someone was watching me. However, when I walked into the circle, I saw no one. I looked back at the path, but no one to see. Strange. Maybe I was just imagining it. I was a bit tired.

At that moment, I heard creaking, creaking of moving leaves and branches. I looked at the source and saw a cat. I decided to let the cat be and take my well-deserved pause.

I had just wanted to sit in the middle of the circle when the cat walked towards me. I watched it in bewilderment. Cats never just walked towards strangers. Normally they are pretty skittish, but this one was apparently an exception to the rule.

I kept on staring at the approaching cat. It's green eyes were focussed on me and I just stared back with my black ones.

When the cat was half way, it started to… transform. Transform into... transform into a... human!

I wanted to run away, but stumbled over my own feet. I fell on the ground and gathered myself to quickly get up and run again, but a pair of black, pointy shoes blocked my way.

I looked up and saw an old woman in a green robe with a green witch hat on her head. She looked well-groomed. Her hair was nicely combed under her hat and her clothes had no stains or creases. She reminded me of Severus in a way.

I had been scared for a moment, but the woman seemed friendly and just looked at me, expectantly.

What was she expecting from me? To run away? The only thing I did at the moment was looking at her with a dropped mouth. I had no idea what to do.

"Hello," the woman said nicely. "My name is Minerva McGonagall. And you must be Ellea, am I right?"

I nodded slowly still gazing at the woman from the ground.

"That must not be a very comfortable position you are lying right now," she said while raising her eyebrows. "Here, let me give you a hand."

She extended her hand and while I had doubted if I should take it for a moment, I took it.

"You don't have to be afraid. I am a friend of your father, Severus Snape, and Dumbledore. You have already met him, as I have heard."

I nodded again.

"I have heard you and Severus are in a bit of trouble right now, am I right?" she asked even though the woman knew the answer. She was clearly aware of everything that was going on.

"Well... a bit... I think it's more than just a bit, but it's fixed by tomorrow," I replied a bit timidly.

"What do you mean?" The woman asked confused.

"I mean that the police will release him tomorrow morning."

"How do you know that?" she asked curiously.

"Well, I have heard some officers say that today. They said he doesn't talk, so they don't have any evidence against him."

"I see." she responded.

"Well, I am here to help you two anyway," she said politely.

"How do you actually know about our problems? I didn't call for help. I didn't get the chance. Did Severus contact you?"

"No," she replied. "No, he hasn't, but we know it thanks to The Daily Prophet. You two were at the front page! You two really drew some unwanted attention. Every wizard could read how those officers infiltrated the house of the Potions Master of Hogwarts, arrested him, took his apparent daughter and almost discovered the Wizarding World and a lot of its secrets." Till my surprise she had not sounded angry. More irritated and grumpy.

"So, the complete Wizarding World knows about our problem and that their world might be discovered, but you are the only one who comes to help us?" I asked unbelievingly.

She gave me a disapproving look. "For now at least. Dumbledore rushed to the Ministry after he had heard about you two. He had to talk and convince the Ministry he should handle the situation. After a while they finally gave him permission. And he has sent me."

"Why did they gave him permission? Does he have a good plan?"

She gave me another disapproving look. "I know you are raised in a Muggle family, so I will take these comments for now," she said strictly. "Albus Dumbledore is one of the most powerful and respected men in the entire Wizarding World, if he isn't the MOST powerful and MOST respected. He is very wise and has a large knowledge about a lot of aspects of magic. He is very respected in the Ministry as well. He has helped them a lot in the past, so I think they trust him with this, even though not everyone likes it he takes this case over."

"So, do you have a plan or do I just have to wait till tomorrow? I mean, that was kind of my plan," I asked her straight away.

She had clearly not expected that question and stammered a bit when she said: "well, actually I had, but now I think we have to do something else."

"What do I need to do?" I asked her. "Well, thanks to your new information, you don't need to do anything."

"Really? No other plan?"

"You need to go back to that house and don't tell anyone just like you have already done."

I nodded.

"Know that we are watching you two. You are not alone. We help you." She smiled friendly and I smiled back.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome dear."

McGonagall turned around, walked a few steps and transformed herself back into her cat form. I watched her doing so and looked in awe.

The cat looked back one time, blinked and then ran off into the woods.

The cat had disappeared quickly out of my eyesight, but I still stared in the direction she had gone to and thought: _Transforming into a cat... that's awesome._

**Author's Note:**

**Hey reader!**

**There is also a new chapter for ****_The Magical Daughter (Snape's perspective)_**** story, which you can find in the stories I have written. It's chapter six. And there will be no chapter(s) next week due to this.**


	33. The last day

I remembered what she had said: "go back to that house". She was clearly on my side and recommended me to wait till tomorrow, just like I had already figured out was the best.

_Me and Severus were at the front page of The Daily Prophet? How could those wizards know? They lived in the Wizarding World. _Then I remembered not everyone did._ Severus lives in the Muggle World. Of course more wizards would.. We were all over the news the Muggle World so they could have heard it that way._

_Dumbledore had wanted to help us out? He must be a really good friend of Severus or he was just afraid some Muggles would find out about the existence of the Wizarding World. Or both. Probably both_, I thought as I walked back over the path.

_And that woman, McGonagall, who was she actually? She has said she's a friend of Severus. Well, Severus had friends after all. Someone who had taken the time to learn to know him._

I walked further down the path and noticed the gloaming. _Would Tom and Yara worry about me?_ I wondered. _Probably. They got the task to take care of me._

Tom and Yara. They were good people, but just didn't understand the situation. And how could they? They didn't know about the existence of magic and that had to stay that way.

My stomach grumbled. It had to be time to eat now and I wasn't even at their home yet. _I am hungry. Would they have already eaten? And more important, what?_ I grinned. _I have blown up the whole dish!_ I couldn't suppress it and laughed out loud.

_By tomorrow, everything will be over. Well, really? We are all over the news in the Muggle World and the Wizarding World. It's unlikely they will forget it that easily. _I sighed.

Things were complicated. Sometimes too complicated. I wished all if this had never happened. But what did I mean with 'all'? Only the problem with the police? Or also Severus as my father? Did I wanted him to not be my father or not? That everything would have stayed the way it had been before I got my mom's letter? Everything would have stayed normal if I hadn't gotten it. Well, normal. I would have been sent to an orphanage. But, my dad Thomas would still have been my father, to my knowledge of course. And magic would have never been a part of my life until I was old enough to go to Hogwarts.

_Would that be better?_ I asked myself. _Would it be better if I had never met Severus? If I had never known about his existence and he hadn't known about mine?_

_Severus would have never been arrested. He would have never had to take me in and care for me. He would just have had less trouble._

_And I. I would have gone to an orphanage and later to Hogwarts without knowing him as my biological father. He would just be my teacher and would just be his student._ That thought made me feel weird. Knowing Severus without knowing he was my father? That was just weird.

The rain started again. The raindrops fell on my head and down by my hair. Still, I couldn't care. My other thoughts were much more important.

I thought about magic and everything it might do. _Maybe it can make plants grow. And maybe it could let people fly without a broomstick. That would be awesome. _I thought about even more things it could maybe do and a smile appeared on my face. _Maybe it could even turn back time... turn back time... _The smile on my face disappeared as quickly as it had come and turned into a serious frown.

My mother had written it to me and Severus had told me I could do magic too. And if turning back time was possible, could I try? _No. No, I can't,_ I told myself strictly. _Severus has said people need a lot of practise before they can handle their magic._ I frowned at my own thoughts. I wanted to try it so badly. Turn the time back and change some things. Well, some things. One of the many: telling Dumbledore and Severus about me being searched. Cause that would have saved us a lot of trouble.

I walked further, while thinking about other things magic could maybe do. However, it didn't make me smile anymore.

I reached the exit of the forest not long after. I looked around. No cat... woman... cat-woman to see. She had probably taken another exit. Or used her magic. She was a witch after all.

I walked over the country road again. It reminded me of my first encounter with Severus. The encounter had felt a bit uneasy, for the both of us, but was nice none the less.

The ditches next to the road were still dirty. However, unlike the first time I had crossed them, I didn't feel the urge to push someone into it. The woman had somehow made me feel better, which was probably due to the sound of her voice. So calming, but maybe that had even to do with the message she had brought with her. Everything was going to be alright after all.

The way back to Tom and Yara's house was easy to find. The houses were not so much alike like in Cokeworth, so I remembered which houses I had passed when I had walked to the forest.

In no time, I stood in front of their house again. Their place. Their home. I felt kind of bad about leaving the house without telling them were I went. They had opened their door for me and had a bed for me to sleep in. They were good people and it had been wrong to leave them like that however, they just didn't understand. But that wasn't their fault. It was no ones.

I walked to their front door and hesitated to knock on it. After a moment of doubting, I did it anyway. Was there a better option otherwise?

A moment later, the door opened slowly. Yara stood in the doorway. She was frowning. I saw anger in her eyes, but also a bit of regret.

"Want to come in?" she asked. She tried to do it nicely, I noticed that, but it still sounded reproachfully. I couldn't blame her for that.

"If I still might," I replied suavely.

Yara smiled softly. "Of course you are. Come in." She stepped aside, I stepped inside. She closed the door behind me while I hung my coat on the coat rack.

I saw Tom, sitting on the couch with his daughters and son in the living room. They were watching a movie, but stopped to look at me.

"Hey," I said a bit uneasily.

"Hey," Tom responded just as uneasily. "Do you feel better now?" he asked curiously.

I looked at my shoes to not look him in the eyes and said: "yes. Yes, I feel better now. The fresh air cooled me down."

Tom smiled a little. "That's good."

"We left some Shephard's Pie for you," Yara said. She stood behind me now and startled me a bit with her comment.

"Thank you," I said.

Yara passed me and walked to the kitchen to reheat some food. I took place at the dinner table and looked at Tom and his kids on the couch. They had resumed their movie and were watching it intently. Tom had his arms around his children, who had snuggled themselves against his body.

The sight made me smile. I had done that with my dad Thomas. Tears filled me eyes. We would never do that again.

I didn't want to start crying in front of them, so I wiped my tears away and wanted to think about other things.

Yara returned to the living room with a plate full of Shephard's Pie and pulled me out of my reverie.

"Here you go," she said while placing the plate in front of me. She pulled a chair on the other side of the table to sit across from me.

I sighed softly. She clearly wanted to talk, I hoped not about Severus or anything that had to do with that. That would probably result in me getting angry again. Angry, because of getting nervous of her questions. I always felt nervous when people asked too many questions.

"Look," she started, "you don't have to talk to me, fine, maybe your story is the truth. Than the police must apologize. But maybe it isn't." She sighed. "Look, we all want to help you and you know that."

I frowned. I knew they wanted to do help. However, them stopping to try to help would help me way much more. I didn't need help anyway. Well, thanks to their urge to help I needed help. Severus was in prison and I was here- a place which felt exactly like a prison to me-. I couldn't compare the two, I knew. Severus had a much worse time right now. I wondered if he was okay.

"My story is indeed the truth, so I, indeed, don't need your help. Tomorrow, everything will be alright again." I explained a bit irritated, even though I didn't want to show her that.

I took another bite of my Shephard's Pie and stared at her in expectation she was going to say something. I was right.

"Then I hope you and your... father, will be happy together," she stated a bit irritated too. She didn't believe me and she was kind of right. I was keeping things from her, indeed. That she noticed it was too bad, but she couldn't do anything anymore. She had till tomorrow to figure something out, how to get the secrets out of me, but I knew she couldn't find a good way to do it. Cause there wasn't a way. I would win this and there was no way they could stop me from doing it.

"Well, I was until the police came, so I think we will do well, thank you," I explained with a faked politeness. Yara noticed it. However, she did nothing with it.

We stared in each other's eyes in utter silence for a moment. Her eyes were trying to break me, so I would tell her something. It didn't work. I stared back and scowled.

"Enjoy your meal," she said while she gave up the staring and stood up from her chair.

I ate my Shephard's Pie in silence and sometimes looked at Yara, Tom and their children, who were watching the movie all together now. The jealousy grew somewhere inside me. I remembered how horrible those two girls of them had been to me. _Why do those terrible girls have a mom and a dad and I don't? Why do I have to be the person whose parents have died? What have I done wrong in my life do deserve this? _I asked myself. I had no answers.

_I have Severus after all. I have got him left_, I comforted myself. He had been so good to me. Already from the moment we met. Holding me when I needed to vomit, because of the apparition. Letting me live in his house. He was a good person. He had a good heart. But having a good heart doesn't have to mean he is a good parent. Holding me when I vomited, letting me live in his home, weren't that things anybody would have done in his situation? Probably. I was in conflict with myself.

When I had finished my supper, I placed my plate in the sink and went upstairs to lie on 'my bed'. I walked into the room and saw the mattress, blanket and pillow on the floor again.

I closed the door and the curtains, grabbed the blanket and threw myself on the mattress. It had been a tiring day. I was exhausted. I closed my eyes quickly and was gone in no time.

**Author's Note:**

**Hey reader!**

**Her reunification with Snape next week!**

**See you next week!**


	34. Reuniting

Someone was shaking my body, I noticed. I opened my eyes and awoke in the girl's bedroom.

Yara stood next to the mattress I had been sleeping on. She smiled when I looked at her with my sleepy eyes.

"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty," she greeted me sweetly with her warm smile. "Time for breakfast," she said.

"Oh, yeah, I will pull some clothes on," I responded while getting out of the 'bed'.

"We will wait for you downstairs." I heard her footsteps om the stairs a few seconds later.

I thought about what I had said to Yara. _Some clothes? I only have the clothes I already wear for all these days_. I laughed at it. What I was doing was so dirty. _Mom would have been so angry if I had done this at home_. I laughed even more. I didn't have to brush my teeth, cause no toothbrush for me to see. _So dirty_.

I went to the bathroom and washed my face with my hands. I had to do a bit of hygiene after all. I combed my hair with a comb I found on the windowsill in the bathroom. My hair was greasy, like always, but normally, I could comb it very quickly. Now however, there seemed to be knots in my hair. Combing was hard, but I managed to do it anyway. One of the consequences of doing little to no hygiene. Nice.

I went downstairs to see the children, Tom and Yara, already sitting at the table.

I nodded at the group and said good morning. Tom was the only one to say 'good morning' back. His daughters frowned at seeing me. They were not happy about having me in their home- even though I hadn't woken up by them entering their room last night. I must have been really exhausted-. However, I would leave this morning and that was for the better for all of us.

I seated myself quickly on a chair and joined breakfast.

Tom and his son continued a conversation about trains, cause apparently the little boy liked those things. Yara asked her daughters about school which was evidently not a good subject to begin about. The girls got irritated by her questions and answered their mother's questions curtly.

No one asked me a thing and I wasn't unhappy with that. They had clearly learned from the conflict of yesterday and remained silent. And watching the girls sweat and lie about how they did on school was entertainment enough.

When breakfast had nearly finished, the doorbell rang. One of the girls, who were still in the conversation about their school with their mom, jumped from her chair and ran to the front door to open it. She fled from the situation and left her sister behind to talk to her mom on her own. The other sister felt betrayed of course and if her gazes could kill, her sister would have been dead when she came back into the room with the two most annoying officers ever, Brown and Smith.

"Good morning to you all," Smith greeted us. Brown just nodded in my direction.

"Well, to be straight to the point, we are here to pick up Ellea," Brown stated.

I stood up from my chair and walked to the end of the table, towards Brown and Smith. From this place I looked at the family. They seemed really happy together. The sight made a bit jealous again. I knew Severus and I needed to work very hard to ever create such a band together, if that was even possible- which I doubted-.

I walked back to Yara and Tom to thank them for letting me sleep in their home. Tom just said 'you're welcome'. Yara was a bit more emotional.

"Ellea, I know we haven't always been on the same page, but you are a smart and wise girl. You have a good heart, little one. And after everything you have been through..." She stroked her hand over my cheek.

The touch surprised me. The warmth for her hand, the softness. In that short moment, everything reminded me of my mother.

In her face, I saw a piece of my mother, my own mother. Yara's face had become red, her eyes watery. She was suppressing a cry, I saw it happening. And in the moment I gave her a hug. In her arms, I smelled the scent of her body. It remembered me she wasn't my own mother, she was gone, she would never come back. So, I pulled back and simply nodded at her, as if to say 'thank you'. She did the same.

"Goodbye, everyone," I said.

They nodded. Without saying another word, I walked with the officers to the corridor, grabbed my coat, looked one more time over my shoulder and left the house for good.

Smith and Brown had parked their car in front of the house. Smith opened the door to the back seat for me. Brown drove.

Yet again, I saw the countryside with its meadows, animals and trees. I loved it. I loved the utter silence and peace. I also enjoyed very crowded places like city centres. I liked both extremes. What can I say, my mind is just weird sometimes. Luckily, MY mind is MY property. No one can invade it... right. _Or could magic do that too?_ I wondered.

The drive through the countryside wasn't long. Soon, more and more houses filled the sight. Buildings became higher and higher and soon they wore so big, I couldn't see the roof of the buildings through the car window anymore.

The car turned around a corner and entered a parking space.

We stepped out. The two officers walked to the front door of a, what seemed like, a huge police station. They looked over their shoulder to look at me, still watching the huge, modern building. Windows with white window frames, red bricks, a flat, black roof.

Brown rolled his eyes. "Hey! Are you coming or..." he shouted a bit irritated. I got pulled out of my thoughts and ran into their direction.

We walked into the building. Smith and Brown in front of me. Other policemen walked through the main hallway. They passed us like we weren't there.

I looked at the hallway. A high, white ceiling, white walls, brown, wooden doors, windows with closed blinds, a large desk with two female police officers behind it and two big stairs on the end of the hallway, one upstairs, one downstairs.

We took the stairs to downstairs on the end of the hallway. It led us to a smaller hallway. Light blue walls, dark blue doors, other windows with the blinds closed, some opened. On the end of the hallway stood a big corner desk with one female police officer behind it. Uncomfortable, wooden chairs stood next to her desk.

"Hey Carla," Smith greeted her happily.

"Hey Tess," the woman responded.

"We are here with the girl," Smith said and stepped aside to reveal me to the woman.

Carla raised her eyebrows in surprise to see me, only for a brief second, then it was gone. "I see," Carla simply said. "He is in his prison cell. You can go and get him. "You can seat yourself here while waiting, little one." She gestured with her hand to the uncomfortable wooden chairs.

"I'm back in a minute," Smith said, as she walked around the corner.

I glared up to see Brown watching at me. I had never liked his looks at me and I knew that feeling was completely mutual.

I turned around and walked to a row of chairs and seated myself on one. Brown did the same and seated himself next to me. I hated his features, I hated his always arrogant behaviour, I just hated everything about him. People often say everyone has something likeable in themselves. Well, this proved the contrary.

I thought about leaving with Severus. _No more thinking about what to say, no more talking with policemen, no more this, no more that, just no more bad things. Well, no more thinking about what to say? Not yet. We were not on that level of intimacy yet._

And then my eyes saw something I had wanted to see so badly. There he was, on the end of the hallway. _Severus... _With his head hanging down, he walked in my direction.

_He's probably so mad at me..._ I realised. _Well, I will know that in a minute._

Brown pulled me out of my reverie with his statement: "You should have talked, you know."

I let his words get into my mind, they echoed through every corner of my brain. Did the man who I hated, despised and scorned actually just say that? I was so done with those kind of remarks. I just wanted to go... how do I want to call it? Home? Severus' house? Or both? I couldn't care at the moment. I had to smack Brown right on his disgustingly perfect nose. I knew that wasn't a smart thing to do, but I wanted it so much! However, I came up with something else.

I turned my head to look at him and smiled ominously. "You know what? Shut up. Just shut up for once. That's better for everyone, I think. At least for me." I had spoken with a faked friendly voice. It had sounded even more evilly than I had intended that way. I had even given myself the chills by acting so wickedly.

Brown stared at me in utter astonishment. He had raised his eyebrows and stared at me. After a few seconds his eyebrows lowered. Now, he scowled at me. He opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Smith, opening a door on the end of the hallway to reveal…

What immediately struck me was his injured face. A big bruise on his nose, a little one on the side of his neck and a massive black eye. He was an adult man. They were the bloody police! What had they done to him!

I looked at the rest of his body to see if there were more injuries and noticed he wore the same clothes as he had worn at the day he had gotten arrested. However, they were a bit more dirty now. Mud? I couldn't tell. _Can it be… no… blood!?_

His hair was messy and greasier than I had ever seen. His face was paler, the bags under his eyes bigger. He looked terrible. Completely not himself. The man I knew normally cleaned himself properly and felt a strong aversion for non-decent people. Or well, knew. I knew him for a while now, but we hadn't really talked about ourselves or whatever. I knew nothing about the man. And I doubted if he knew more about me.

He carried his cape, folded, over his left arm, and looked a bit apprehensively over his shoulder.

His walk towards me and Brown seemed like an eternity. He kept staring at me during his walk. His eyes… No emotion to see. Which made me nervous, until I realised that was how he mostly looked at anything. I had no idea what to do, what to say, or what not to say.

He was halfway. I stood up from my chair. I never lost me gaze at him. The closer he came, the taller he seemed to become. Now, I remembered how tall he actually was.

And now, there he stood, opposite to me. From this close, he didn't only look exhausted, he also looked miserable, harrowing and straight out sad.

"Well, you two must be happy to see each other again, right?" Smith asked questioningly. She first looked at Severus's face next to her, then to mine and back to Severus's.

I wasn't planning to answer that question and so seemed Severus, but then turned his head to Smith. "Yes," he simply said with his normal monotonous voice. "I am glad to see her in good health." His voice sounded even more exhausted than his looks gave away.

"Can we leave now?" he asked.

Brown looked at me, then back at Severus. "Yes, you may. Let's get your stuff." Brown walked to the desk with Severus following him.

I seated myself on a chair again and watched Brown talking to the woman behind the desk. She went to another room and returned with a plastic box, which she handed to Severus. He opened it and looked at the stuff. Then, he put his wand in his pocket and tied his belt around his waist.

"Well, let's go," he said irritated as he came back.

I nodded and stood up.

Brown laid a hand on Severus' shoulder. "I want to apologize for keeping your here, Severus," he dared to say to him. Severus's eyes narrowed and his face filled with anger. However, he contained his temper.

"I don't want you to call me Severus. You have no right to. And it's a bit late for apologies don't you think?"

Brown frowned. "I think it's never too late for apologies."

"Then we have another disagreement, haven't we?"

"Yes, I think we have, but that doesn't matter anymore."

"You are right, it doesn't, cause I am going home now. Come on, Ellea." He looked at me and placed his hand on my shoulder. He pulled my shoulder a bit backwards, gently, to my surprise. He got his hand off my shoulder and we started walking towards the stairs.

"Can we give you a ride?" Smith asked from behind us.

Severus stopped walking, looked over his shoulder and said arrogantly: "I can suite myself right now, thank you."

"You remember our agreement, right?" she pleaded.

"I do. Don't worry. You're not going to lose your stupid jobs. Well, not because of me."

He turned his head back, looked at me with a face I couldn't identify the emotion of and continued walking.

We walked up the stairs. None of us spoke. I looked one time back over my shoulder. Brown and Smith were still standing there, gazing at us, tensed.

When I turned back, I took a quick look at Severus to see if he was looking. He wasn't. So a good time to raise my middle finger at the cops behind my back. And as I did so, I had to suppress a naughty smile. Wasn't really working though.

We were upstairs now and walking through the main hallway.

"You can't do that you know," Severus said without looking at me. I turned my head to him in surprise.

He slightly smiled. He still didn't look at me, but said: "however, for now, I allow it. Because of these special circumstances."

I smiled and looked at the front door in front of us. But kept wondering how he could have seen my middle finger. _Note to self: Severus has bloody eyes in his back!_

We walked to the front door in silence. Officers who passed us, looked open-eyed at us. _Of course they do_, I thought. _We were all over the news_.

Severus noticed it too and gazed back at the curious people.

"We were all over the news," I explained to him. "That's why they are staring at us."

Severus looked at me. "I had already expected something like that," he reacted with a sigh.

Severus pushed the front door open and seemed surprised to see the outside, as if he had never seen it before. The sunlight, reflecting in his eyes, revealed that the spark in them had never left. He was stronger than I thought he was. And probably everyone thought about him that same way. How else could they think about him?

**Author's Note:**

**Hey reader!**

**Are their problems over now? Was the wizard stronger than the Muggles? Maybe. But what about Wizard VS other wizards?**

**See you next week!**


	35. Bad memories

We walked over the sidewalk. Some people passed us, but in contrast to the policemen, they didn't give us a glance. Only a few actually, who only looked at Severus' face. Which was a normal occurrence with a face like his was now.

"How are we getting home?" I asked him.

"Apparition, I think," he replied without even looking at me. Strange. He never said 'I think'. He was always so confident. About everything. This proved to me he wasn't so mentally strong at the moment as he normally was. His mind was as broken as his nose and probably needed even more time to heal.

"We can't do that here, can we?"

He sighed with a sense of irritation. "No we can't. Because Muggles are not allowed know about the existence of magic. You know that," he snarled.

His tone… Did he know about my fault of not telling him I was searched by the police? Probably. The man knew nearly everything

"I know," I simply responded.

He didn't react and kept on walking.

We walked through the crowdy streets. People with shopping bags passed us.

"Are you okay, Severus?" I asked him. I had to ask him. I had worried about him so much. But I realised soon that that had been a stupid question.

He turned his head and looked at me with an angry face. "What do you mean? Don't I look _okay_!?"

"I didn't mean it that way," I replied monotonously.

Severus raised his eyebrows. "You didn't mean it that way? Explain to me what your thoughts are then," he stated hatefully.

"I meant it in a more mental way."

"In a more _mental_ way? Do you think I care about my _mental_ well-being right now!?"

"No. But I do. I care about your mental state." It cost me so much willpower to stay calm. He was so intimidating when he was pissed off.

"Don't you dare feel pity for me! I don't want it! And I will never want it either!"

"But I can't stop feeling pity, because it's my damn fault!"

Severus stopped walking and turned around to face me, the scabs on his wounds reflecting the sunlight.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm sorry," I said.

"Excuse me?!" he said with a threatening tone, suppressing yelling, to not disturb the few people in the street.

He walked to me, with big steps and grabbed my upper arm. "You are going to tell me everything! Am I clear!?" he hissed.

"Yes, yes, but let go of my arm please. It hurts," I begged.

"Oh, you think this hurts? Look at me! Look at my damn face. That hurts!"

"I'm sorry!" I pleaded while nearly crying.

"Tell me!"

"Let go of my arm then!" I hissed, to not disturb pedestrians.

Our eyes met each other and I saw anger turning into… fear? He said nothing. He just stared for a moment and slowly let go of my arm.

I rubbed it to soften the pain. Severus still said nothing. Probably thinking about the situation he was in and realising that anger wasn't the solution for this problem. But why the fear then?

"I think you know a lot more about what has happened than I do," he stated seriously after a moment, more calmed down now.

"That depends on how much you know," I responded.

He frowned. "You know I don't like that kind of answers."

"I didn't mean it that way. I meant, if you first tell me what you know, then I can fill in the blanks," I explained.

"There is a lot you don't mean in the way you say them, don't you think?"

"Or you just interpret them wrong."

He growled, his eyes widened. His hand immediately on his left pocket. The pocket where his wand was. But he stopped and sighed.

"If you were a trained witch, I would have stunned you right now," he threatened, lowering his hand.

I was shocked by his threat. Was he really the type to do that to people? Had I been wrong all along?

"Did I offend you so much?"

He sighed. "No. You… you just reminded me of someone. And I reminded myself of someone else."

He sighed, nodded and we started walking again. I didn't know who the person was I had reminded him of of course, but I knew for sure the person had left him with bad memories. He looked puzzled. His anger had completely disappeared and was replaced by nothing but confusion. And who was the person he had reminded himself of?

"Your idea was good, you know," he said after a moment. "To let me tell what I know."

"Good. Let's start from the beginning then."

"Well, first I got arrested," he started. "Then, they brought me to a Muggle police station. They started questioning me about you."

"What did they ask?" I asked him curiously.

Severus gave me an irritated look. He clearly hated this kind of conversation, me asking him questions about himself. But he answered it nonetheless.

"Well, they had found my books about all sorts of magic. Those Muggles thought I was _crazy_." He said the last word a bit louder than the rest of his sentence to indicate how stupid he thought those people were.

A small pause occurred. I knew he wanted to say something, but had no idea how to do it. I looked at him, he looked back with a face full of seriousness.

"They also thought I had kidnapped you, Ellea," he stated.

I swallowed. _He knows_, I thought nervously. _He bloody knows!_

"Why would they think that?" he asked me seriously. "Why was there Muggle police in our house, Ellea?"

"Our house?" I asked him incredulously. I hoped I could change the subject and talk about why the police was at... THE house later. However, I also wondered if he really had meant 'our house'.

He sighed, a bit irritated. "Yes, our house. You live under my roof now, so it's not only my house anymore," he explained.

"Thanks," I simply said.

"Smart play to change the subject," he stated seriously. "Very smart. A real Slytherin move, I have to say," he said proudly.

_Busted_, I thought nervously. _But he has to know it sooner or later._

"However, you know more about why there was police at OUR house, don't you?" he asked calmly.

"I'm sorry," I tried again.

He stopped walking. "Why are you so sorry, Ellea?" he asked. "What have you done?"

How was I going to say this? Just start from the beginning then?

"It's over now, but I _want_ to know. I _need_ to know. This is no joke, Ellea. This is very serious."

His voice had become more friendly. The anger seemed to have left him. However, you never know what's going on in Severus' head.

"I know it is. I have thought about it a lot and I know you should know. Not only as you being you, but also as you being a wizard."

"I think you need to clarify that." He walked into a dark alley next to a shop. No one paid attention to us.

Severus looked one more time. "Time to leave," he stated quickly, grabbed both of my arms tightly and we apparated.

My body felt like it was pushed through a small hole, just like the previous time. Everything went black. I couldn't breathe. It felt like some force pushed my chest further into my body. My eyes seemed to be pushed backwards by the same force. I squeezed them tightly closed. And the feeling on my ear-drums. As if someone pulled them out of my head. Even though it all hurt, it went better than the first time.

The force had stopped pushing my body. I felt Severus' grip on my arms decrease. And there was the nausea. Apparition was certainly not the most comfortable way of traveling, but it was by far the fastest.

Around us were trees and grass and I noticed that we had apparated to the same place as the time he and Dumbledore had picked me up from the train station.

I shook my head, to get rid of the nausea.

"Could you tell me you want to do that next time?" I sighed.

"Let's go home," he replied without looking at me.

We walked over the same road as the day I had met him. The trees, the meadows, the cows, all looked the same as before. As if time had stopped for this countryside. As if this sight had all the time in the world to change and had decided to do that later. As if the sight had all the time to make the decision. Time I wished I had had to make mine. I would have made different choices. I bet Severus would have made other choices. Things would have gone way differently. Way differently.

**Author's Note:**

**Hey reader!**

**A small puzzle for you this week, who is the person Ellea reminds Snape of? And who is the person Snape reminds himself of?**

**Please leave your answers in the reviews. The winner gets a shout-out of course :) and a price… At the end of the story there will be a chapter about the future (by the time Ellea goes to Hogwarts). She will get sorted into a Hogwarts house… but which one? The winner can make a choice between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Leave your choice in your review as well, so I can announce the winner and his/her choice next week.**

**If nobody gets the answer right, I will reveal the answer next week and I will make a poll, so everyone can vote for a house.**

**Take this hint for help: they are original Harry Potter characters who play an important part in how Snape is.**

**Good luck solving the puzzle and see you next week!**


	36. Problems

We reached Severus' house after a short walk through the countryside and the maze of streets which formed his neighbourhood. The way home- after our conversation- had been in silence. It had been very uncomfortable for me. I couldn't discover Severus' feelings about it- his features were hard to read at the moment and actually always-.

Severus got the key for the front door out of one of his pockets and put it into the lock. He sighed first, then turned the key and pushed the door open. It opened with a little squeak, which seemed to make Severus more tensed.

He stepped in as the first of us two and gasped at what he saw. Books all over the place, randomly pulled out of the bookcases, some still in the cases, but most of them out, lying at the most strange places. Some books laid open, on random pages, on the floor. Severus scowled and walked with big steps, to not step on books, to the kitchen.

Plates, cups, bottles were outside the cupboards and standing on the table, fragments of glass on the floor. They had left the fridge ajar. The glasses on the table reflected the yellow light which came through the crack

I stood in the living room and had been watching him through the open kitchen door. He scowled and growled and had no idea where to start cleaning up the mess.

He turned his head and looked at me, then to the bookcase next to me. I followed his gaze, to the bookcase with the secret basement door. _Would the police have found his potions basement? _Severus look revealed he thought the exact same thing.

Severus swiftly passed me and stopped in front of the bookcase, his hand on the pocket with his wand.

He touched a shelf three times with his wand. I watched him and the bookcase carefully and after a few seconds, I heard noises coming from the bookcase. The bookcase opened like a door and revealed the stairway behind it like the last time.

He stormed down the stairs, his hair falling in front of his face. I ran to the stairs and peeked through the door post. He was downstairs already, nothing to see. I doubted if it was wise to go downstairs. Severus was stressed out, angry and tired.

I heard Severus sighing in relief. If I had to believe the sound of his breath, everything was okay. No one had found the basement. A big relief for the both of us.

After a moment of sounds of bottles, boxes and jars, he came back upstairs.

"Everything is normal down there. Just like I had left it. They haven't found it," he said.

"Well, that' a good thing."

"Obviously," he snarled.

I ignored it and asked: "Could they have found it then? With all that magical protection?"

"Do you think I would worry about it if I knew for sure they wouldn't find it?" he said irritated. He quickly walked up the stairs, to the bedrooms. I heard him snarling, hissing and growling, but I couldn't hear what he said. The only word I could make out was 'Muggle' and I could imagine he didn't use it in a good way.

I heard him open another door, then footsteps on stair treads. He had gone to the attic. The sounds became softer and a moment later, I couldn't hear Severus' hissing and growling anymore.

I looked at the mess and saw all the books behind me. The people who had done this had really taken the time to create a chaotic mess to clean. It would take hours to do so. Or maybe one flick of a wand.

I decided to already start cleaning the mess. Maybe Severus was too tired to do magic. I could imagine it took a lot of energy to do so. Or not, but I picked up some books and placed them back into a bookcase.

I came across books with titles as 'Potions and their magic' and 'Plants of Mother Nature'. Titles which sounded way less interesting than the books I had read before, but worth a look later on nonetheless.

Severus walked down the stairs to the living room, I heard his close steps. He looked at me, a bit surprised.

"Are you already cleaning?" he asked incredulously.

I nodded and placed another book in a bookcase.

"I haven't asked you to do that."

"Nope."

"Then why are you doing cleaning?" he asked irritated and incredulously at the same time.

"I just thought it was a good idea," I stammered.

"I can do it with magic, you know? Much easier and faster," he remarked calmly, his look questioningly. "Come and stand next to me," he commanded.

As soon as I stood next to him, he got his wand out of his pocket. He waved with it and the books flew up and into the bookcases.

I bit my lip while I looked at his magic. _I can really get used to this._

"I will organize them later," he said when he was done. He walked to the kitchen and waved his wand again. The cups, plates, bottles, everything disappeared into cupboards. He pointed his wand to every cupboard each and its doors closed. He didn't even need a wave with his wand to clean up the glass on the floor. Only pointing was enough. He walked to the fridge, looked inside of it and then closed it with a slight push.

"You should really learn me how to do that," I complimented him.

He walked back into the living room and seated himself in an armchair. "You should stop being so amazed about magic," he stated.

"I wasn't amazed," I commented. "I just think that if I know how to do that, I can save myself a lot of time cleaning stuff in the future."

"A clear case of: not my job," he said and put his wand back in his pocket. "Hogwarts is going to do that."

His face revealed he didn't believe me." I have seen Muggle-borns who adapted way faster to the magical way of living than you do."

"What's a Muggle-born?" I asked.

He sighed. "A subject for another time. But first, tell me about what you know," he demanded. "Take a seat."

The change of the subject came as a sudden surprise, but I had expected this to come.

Staring at the ground from a sitting position felt mentally way more comfortable than from a standing position. I sighed and started talking. "Well, ehm, I think it's the best to start with the day I met you."

Severus leaned back in his chair and watched me attentively.

"When I stepped onto the train, I noticed the title on a newspaper someone was reading. It was something with the words 'missing orphan' and I knew they meant me."

"How could that possibly be you? How does the newspaper know about your case? Was your story really that frontpage worthy?"

His words were very, very badly chosen, after all that had happened, but when I gave it an objective look, the question didn't seem so strange anymore.

"That's because the police knew about it," I replied.

"And how does it come the police knew?" he asked even more angrily than his eyes were.

"Well, two cops..." I couldn't finish the sentence. As if something was blocking my throat. The day those cops had showed up at my doorstep. That day had turned my life completely upside down. My family, gone. The people I had loved the most during my entire life, dead. And suddenly, I had no one anymore.

"Those two cops what?" he asked irritated.

I looked up at him with my watery eyes. And somewhere in that cold face of him, I knew he felt something. A feeling he had to stop asking so much question and just wait for a later moment. But he pushed the feeling away and pretended to feel a thing.

"The day that my mom and dad died, I was home on my own. Two cops came to my home to tell me they had died and that I had to pack my stuff and go with them."

Severus nodded.

"When I had packed my stuff, we walked to their car. My old neighbour came out of her house and handed me a letter from my mom. She told me my mom had told her to give it to me when they would die when I was still very young."

"The letter in which she told you about me?" he asked.

"Yes." I simply replied. "They drove me to the police station. They gave me a place to sleep in a prison cell. I decided to read the letter and discovered the existence of magic and me being a witch and about... well... you and me."

Severus nodded. "I understand," he said while looking at me, attentively.

"So you just took off on your own?"

"Ehm, yeah, I thought that was the best thing to do with all this magic stuff."

"I guess so."

"The next morning a woman took me to a pub to get breakfast. I pretended I had to go to the toilet and climbed through a small window. I walked back to my house to get some stuff and Rowan the owl It became evening and I desperately needed a place to sleep. I climbed over the fence of a house and slept in someone's shed that night. That night, I also wrote a letter to Hogwarts in the hope of finding you."

"How did you react to it?" I asked him curiously.

His face revealed he didn't like that question and so did what he said: "surprised."

It was silent for a couple of minutes. Severus nor me knew what to say until Severus said: "what did you do then?"

"Well, after that night, I went to the train station to go to Cokeworth, cause that's where you would live according to my mom. I bought a ticket and went to the train. A man started talking to me and the more I tried to stop his intention to start a conversation, the more he wanted it. Later in the conversation, he recognized me as that missing kid."

"So you started running?"

"I ran out of the train and sprinted over the platform and through the railway station. I ran and bumped into a group of man. And you know the story from there," I ended my story.

Severus raised his eyebrows to indicate how surprising he found the story to be. "That explains a lot, I have to say." He took a deep breath and asked: "why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"Honestly, I kind of forgot about it. I mean, I met you, the person who is apparently my biological father and who is apparently a wizard, just like apparently me. And that kind of distracted me, I guess."

"So you forgot to tell me you were searched by the Muggle police?" he asked incredulously.

"Ehm… Yes, actually," I replied softly.

How could you forget something like that!?" he snarled like it was barely a question.

"Everything was just so overwhelming," I tried to justify my actions. However, it had little to no effect.

"Are you stupid!?" he yelled and jumped out of his chair. "Do you realise in how much trouble we could have gotten into!? And I do not only mean with the Muggles! I also mean the trouble with the Ministry of Magic! What if they get to know this! We can't save ourselves out of that!" he yelled.

I doubted what to say, but he had to know about that cat-lady.

"I think they already know," I stated softly.

Severus startled and stared at me with his dark eyes, now full of fear. "What? But… then…, he stammered.

"When you were with the police, I stayed at a house to have a place to sleep. And when I took a walk there was a cat who turned into a woman." As I said, I realised how stupid it sounded, but I was in a world of magic now. Anything was possible. Nothing was stupid.

"McGonagall," he whispered.

"Yes, that was her name."

"What did she tell you?" he asked as if he was in a hurry.

"The woman told me she knew you and that she and other people, like Dumbledore, were watching our situation."

Severus sighed and hid his face in the palms of his hands. He looked desperate. I hadn't seen him being this way ever. He was never desperate. He was always so calm and emotionless. But now, He let it all go.

"The woman told me we were all over the news in the Wizarding World."

Severus buried his face deeper in his hands.

"I told her the complete story and that you would be released the following day. She decided we would not need help and that we could do it on our own. So, maybe we aren't in that much problems after all," I tried to cheer him up.

"You think we are not in trouble!?" he shouted. "If I…" He groaned in anger. "If I didn't know better I would think you know nothing about the bloody Ministry! You have no idea where they are capable of, do you!?"

"No, I don't."

"What the hell DO you know! We can't solve this, Ellea! Don't you understand!" He buried his pace in his hand again. "Why do I even say 'WE? It's ME who needs to solve this mess. You are just a child," he said it as if I was useless, which hurt somewhere, but it was not like he wasn't right. How could I help fixing stuff that had to do with magic? I knew nothing about it.

"The following day, they brought me to the police station. And you know what happened next."

Severus nodded. He had calmed down a bit. I saw he wanted to say something, but couldn't find the right words. I gave him some time but, he said nothing.

"And what happened to you?" I asked a bit too curiously. I was pretty curious at how he had gotten those wounds on his face. And even though I knew he wouldn't want to say it, I had to ask.

Severus looked up, surprised. "I don't think that's important," he tried to sweep the question away.

"I have told you about me, now you should tell me about you, that's fair."

He frowned. "Your story was important to discover if we are in even more problems. And we ARE in more problems," he sighed. As he looked at the ground, light shone on his forehead which revealed the drips of sweat on it.

"We will solve the problems," I said positively.

"What the hell is wrong with you!?What do you think will happen!? Do you think the Wizarding World has no kind of police to see if the laws are being observed!? Or do you think the Wizarding World has no laws at all!? Well, it doesn't care what you think, but we do have laws and police and you will learn to know them, because we are in big trouble with them!" He wiped some sweat of his forehead. "I broke the law. Muggles have seen magical stuff in my home, that's prosecutable. Do you know where prosecuted people go to!? To a place called Azkaban! And that's way, way worse than Muggle prisons, Ellea. Dementors torture people there. Dementors drain people of all their happiness and leave them with their worst memories. Long-term exposure to those creatures usually leads to insanity and even death." he explained, while his forehead produced way more sweat than before. "But don't worry, you won't go there if they come for us, oh no. Who knows what will happen to you, but I'm sure it's not going to be you who is going to pay for your mistake of not telling me you were searched by those bloody Muggles."

"I'm sorry."

"Oh, shut up, will you!? I'm done with your excuses!" He looked at the ground and sighed. "Go upstairs."

"But maybe-"

"Go upstairs!" he yelled, his eyes wide, a frown on his forehead, the sweat still visible.

I startled, quickly did what he had said and ran up the stairs to prevent more problems between us.

**Hey reader!**

**Like I had said last week, I will announce the winner of the puzzle this week:**

**And it is (drum roll):**

**Our Italian guest reader!**

**His/her answer was correct and therefore he/she got the choice which house Ellea will be sorted in in the last chapter. He/she chose Slytherin and so shall it be.**

**Thanks for reading (and leaving your answer in the reviews) and see you next week!**


	37. The Wizarding police of Great Britain

After a long night of sleep, a new, very awkward day had started. We didn't speak to each other. Severus was probably still too angry and I found it to be too uncomfortable after all that had happened.

He was still tired. The bags underneath his eyes were bigger than normal and he didn't come out of his chair for the rest of the day. Or well, until the doorbell rang actually.

I looked up from my book. Severus did the same. He looked surprised, as if that had never happened before.

He got out of his armchair and walked to the door. I looked back to my book, but listened carefully. I heard the front door open with a creaking sound.

"Severus Snape?" I heard a man's voice ask.

"Yes," Severus simply replied. I heard the suspicion in his voice.

"My name is Benjamin Barton. I am an Auror for the Ministry of Magic. Can I come in?" the man asked politely.

Severus stepped aside and gestured the man to come in. The man came in and looked immediately at me.

"Hello, young girl," he greeted me.

"Hello," I simply said. I had no idea what an Auror was, but it didn't sound very good.

"I don't know if you were listening when I and" he paused to think about what he was going to say. "Mr. Snape..." I knew he knew about our situation. Why else would he hesitate?

"My name is Benjamin Barton. I am an Auror for the Ministry of Magic of Great Britain. Do you know what that is?" he asked politely.

I thought deeply, but had no idea what an Auror could be, so I shook my head.

"Well, it's similar to, how do Muggles call that?" He thought for a short moment. "I don't remember, but I'm sure you know what I mean. We watch if the wizarding laws are obeyed. And if they are not, we take action. "The Auror turned around and looked at Severus. "Can we talk? Just the two of us?" Barton asked.

Severus nodded. "Ellea, if you want to go upstairs for now," he said. His voice was calmly, but the frown on his forehead revealed his real feelings. He was nervous, scared and maybe even stressed. I did like he had asked and went upstairs with my book. However, I was not planning on not listening to their conversation. This was probably way too important to let slip.

I threw the book on the bed and sneaked back to the stairs. I crouched and listened attentively.

"Could I offer you some thea Mr. Barton?" Severus asked the man politely.

"No, thank you," the man replied. "I think we will be done very quickly."

I heard them seating themselves somewhere in the living room.

"You probably wonder why I'm here, don't you?" Barton asked.

"Yes, of course," Severus' voice full of suspicion.

"I am send by the Ministry of Magic to talk with you about what has happened a few days before," the Auror explained. "Are you aware of the fact that you were all over the news in the Wizarding World, Mr. Snape?"

Severus waited a moment before giving an answer. "I wasn't."

His answer surprised me. I had told him everything. I had told him about that cat-lady and that she had told me about that we had been all over the news in the Wizarding World. Why was he lying? Or had he forgotten about it?

"Well, you were," Barton stated seriously. "You exposed magic to Muggles."

Snape waited again before he reacted. "Explain," he stated with his normal monotonous voice. His voice sounded calmly. However, I knew he was tensed about the Auror being here. He was trying really hard to keep his profile as low as possible and till so far, he did a good job. But was it enough?

"Well, Mr. Snape," the Auror started fiercely. "The Muggle police saw literally ALL of your books about magic. All of it, Mr. Snape. And then I do not count your Hogwarts stuff, your broomstick and your potions stuff."

"Potions stuff?" Severus asked with a sense of 'I know they didn't'.

Barton sighed irritated. "They haven't found that. Surprisingly for the Potions Master of Hogwarts I have to say. However, they have found enough. And that is not in your favour, professor." the man stated fiercely. However, Severus remained calm.

"And what did the Muggles do with the information in the books?" Severus asked the Auror.

"Luckily not much. They think you are one hell of a crazy man, actually," he stated with a small laugh. "They didn't look further into it."

"That's good."

"Yes, that's very good. For the Ministry, for you and for the complete Wizarding community."

"That still doesn't explain why you have come to my house, Mr. Barton," Severus said, trying to sound politely.

However, Barton clearly felt offended and scoffed: "I'm here to talk to you from man to man about the situation, Mr. Snape."

Before Severus could respond, the doorbell rang. I heard Severus stand up and walk towards the front door.

"Can we come in?" I heard another male voice ask.

"Why if I might ask?" Severus asked the men suspiciously, even though I could hear in his voice he knew why they would want that.

"We are Aurors for the Ministry of Magic. Our colleague is already in here, am I right?"

I heard step in the hallway, then in the living room.

"I ask you to give me your wand, Mr. Snape." Barton stated firmly. "Get your wand and place it on the table."

"Why?" I heard Severus ask. "Are you going to arrest me?"

"I first just want to talk. Please put your wand on the table."

What followed was the sound of wood on wood

"Good. Thank you. Now we can go on. You probably wonder why there are three Aurors at your house."

"Of course."

"Well, I first wanted to talk to you about this in person. That way, we can talk more freely. You are a smart man Mr. … I mean, professor Snape. Not everybody can become the Potions Master at Hogwarts. So, you must understand that we, as in the Ministry of Magic, can't let you get away with this."

"This?" Severus asked calmly. I didn't understand how he could act so calmly in this situation.

"Yes, _this_!" Barton scoffed.

I heard footsteps, loud and heavy. Definitely not Severus'. Severus' footsteps were quieter and careful as if he had thought every step he took through.

"Severus Snape, you are arrested by the Ministry of Magic for exposing magic and the Wizarding World to Muggles," Barton stated strictly.

The next thing I heard were the sound of closing handcuffs. I startled and listened even more carefully.

"Everything you say from now on can be used against you. You have the right to remain silence," Barton explained "Do want to say anything, _professor_ Snape?" he joked.

I heard no answer from Severus.

"Do you know what the Muggle police has found too?" he asked. "A letter from a dead woman to a girl. And guess who that girl is."

No reaction.

Then, some footsteps.

"I have watched this case very carefully, you know. As an Auror, but also as a reader of the Daily Prophet. And I have to say there is quite some gossiping about Hogwarts' Potions Master. And although I don't believe everything they write, there is one question that popped up in my mind after reading that letter and the stories from that woman's family."

"Good for you," I heard Severus snarl.

"I'm sorry professor, I will ask it straight away then. You have wanted to fuck her right at the first time you met her, didn't you?"

"Excuse me!?" Severus exclaimed.

"Well, I have seen some pictures. She was quite beautiful. And when I would find such a literally Sleeping Beauty, or well more like an unconscious beauty, in the woods, I would get some feelings."

"Stop it, Barton," I heard Severus say threateningly.

"Wow, I'm sorry professor. It was just a question," he joked.

"If you want a confession out of me, you really need to take me to the Ministry. I'm under arrest anyway."

"Yeah, I know. And we will. But that letter tells a lot of things about the Wizarding World, you know?"

Severus didn't answer.

"You don't? Haven't you read it?"

Severus didn't react again.

"Do you want to read it? Why? Didn't the girl want you to read it or something?"

I heard some movements.

"Because of you silence, I take that as a 'yes'." Barton sighed. "It was just in the girl's backpack. You could have just grabbed it out of it when she wasn't looking, you know?"

"In contrast to you, I respect people's wishes," Severus snarled.

Barton laughed. "Seriously!? Oh come on, are you really that kind of person? Even I have read it and it's so sweet to read how much you guys adored each other. Well, until you found out she was a Squib, dumped her and left all by her own to take care of the baby."

"Shut up!" Severus yelled.

"It's just so cold, man."

I heard Severus angry groans from Severus and stamping on the ground, probably his as well. Was he trying to attack the Auror or something?

"I won't do that if I were you, professor. You know as well as everyone that Aurors need to learn a lot and very nasty spells, hexes, jinxes and so much more, so unless you want me to say 'Petrificus Totalus' you need to calm down."

The noises stopped.

"Good. Well, maybe the bigger meaning of this is that it's going to be pretty bad for your lawsuit."

"Already?" Severus asked incredulously.

"Yes, all the evidence is already there and the letter is the main evidence. I would confess if I were you. That could save you some time in Azkaban."

"What about Ellea?" I heard Snape ask.

"That squib-kid?" Barton asked.

"She isn't a squib," Severus growled. "Oh God no. No, she isn't. Cause that would have been a shame, right. A wizard getting a Squib as child. But that happens sometimes. It's not a choice. But you don't hear every day that a wizard knocks up a Squib."

Severus didn't react, but I felt his anger in the air.

"Well, if you truly want to know, she can stay with the Malfoys."

"How did you arrange that that quickly?" Severus asked curiously.

"Everybody in the Wizarding World knows about this case and when people started speculating about you getting sentenced to Azkaban, people also started talking about the future of your child. Malfoy threw himself forward to take her in. People found it to be very generous of him to offer that, but if you ask me, he only did it for some good publicity and extra votes. People speculate he wants to go for Minister for Magic next year."

"I wouldn't vote for him," I heard another man's voice say.

"No, me neither, but Alwar Tuk and Pelegrim Alviricus are good candidates," Barton said. "But anyway, time to go I think. Alvero, Leon, take him to the Ministry. I go and get the girl."

I heard footsteps coming towards the stairs. I jumped up and sneaked quickly to my room, grabbed the book from my bed and pretended I was reading. A second later, Barton stepped silently into the room.

"Ellea," he started uneasily. "I have to ask you to come with me."

"Why?" I asked like I had no idea about what was going on.

"Well, your father has been arrested for exposing magic and the Wizarding World to Muggles," he stated softly, as if he was sorry for the whole situation.

"You know what Muggles are, right?"

I nodded.

"Well, than you get kind of an image why it's not allowed to do so."

I heard some rumbling downstairs and passed Barton with my look and looked at the stairs. Barton followed my gaze and looked over his shoulder.

"We are taking him to the Ministry. Don't worry, he will be fine if he cooperates. You will go to some nice people," he explained.

"okay."

"You have heard us talking didn't you?" he asked softly.

I narrowed my eyes.

"I'm sorry," he said. "For everything I have said about you and your mother. It's just…" He sighed. "If people are stressed they think less about what they are going to say. Interrogations are easier for us Aurors then."

"That's really messed up."

"Yeah, I guess it is," he laughed nervously. "I think it's good if you go and pack some stuff. Like I have said earlier, you will stay with another family in the Wizarding World for a while."

I did like he had said, packed my Wizard cloths I had bought with Severus at Diagon Alley and was ready to go. It was not really had more. I put it all in my backpack and went back downstairs with the Auror.

Till my surprise there was no one downstairs anymore. However, I hadn't heard them leaving. Where were they?

The Auror had spotted my confusion and said: "they have apparated. Do you know what that is?"

I nodded.

"The fastest way to travel. So guess what we are going to do."

"Where did they bring him to?" I asked.

"To the Ministry," he simply replied.

"But is the Ministry so big it can house the Wizarding Parliament and all the police of the complete Wizarding World?" I asked incredulously.

Barton shrugged. "I think so. Do Muggles do that at multiple places than? Not really convenient, don't you think?" he slightly laughed.

I realised how low wizards really thought about non-magical people.

"Okay, time to leave. Come, grab my arm and hold tight." He held out his arm so I could grab it.

"Where are we going?"

"A surprise, but don't worry. A good one. You will like it Have you ever apparated before?" he asked.

I nodded.

He looked surprised. "Well, okay. Then you know how it feels. I count to three and then we apparate, okay?"

I nodded. "Okay then, one, two..."

**Hey reader!**

**How will they get themselves out of this one? Keep on reading to find out. But don't worry, I have read the reviews (thanks for those btw!). I won't make a big separated story again.**

**See you next week!**


	38. The home of blood purity

It was a strange thought, me getting used to apparition, but I guess that was exactly the thing that was happening. I didn't even feel sick afterwards. Only a bit dizzy, but that was normal.

Barton let go of my arms and stepped aside. It was now I saw an enormous castle-like building. Big windows, sparkling in the sunlight, and a big fence with high green hedges to keep unwanted guests out.

"Well, this is Malfoy Manor," Barton introduced the place. "You can stay here for a while or for as long as needed. We will see."

Baton quickly walked towards the high gate, as if he tried avoiding talking to me.

When we had nearly reached the gate, it opened by itself. I raised my eyebrows and was impressed, but quickly realised what Severus had said about being impressed by magic- don't be-.

The path towards the manor was long. On both sides stood high, green hedges and the grass in front of those hedges was nicely cut.

Infront of us stood an immense building. The light brown and grey bricks made the building a bit less intimidating then it seemed from far away, but still I felt very little underneath such a height.

As we came closer, the large front door opened and a young boy jumped outside.

The boy looked a bit older than me and his enthusiastic behaviour made me chuckle.

An adult man followed the boy. His long, white hair matched the colour of the boys short hair. It was clearly the man's son. The man looked posh with his long black robe and silver jewellery. He reprimanded the boy for his enthusiasm. I couldn't hear what he said, but I could read his body language. It was easier to read than Severus'. I knew the man and I hadn't met before, but I had the feeling I knew him from something. And the name 'Malfoy' sounded pretty familiar as well.

The man was followed by a bit smaller woman, looking just a bit less posh than her supposed husband. Her skin colour matched the boy's. Her green dress made her look thinner, on purpose I imagined. Her heels made her look taller, so they did their job as well. I had no feeling of recognition as I saw her. Neither when I looked at the boy again. But who was that man then?

The boy stopped acting happily after his father's reprimand. He stood still and stared at me and the Auror next to me. His white blouse was even whiter than his hair. Something which surprised me, since I had never seen such white hair before.

"Welcome to Malfoy Manor.," the white-haired man greeted us as we were nearly there.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Malfoy," Barton responded. "You live beautifully, if I might say."

"Thank you," the man responded proudly. "It has been in the possession of the Malfoy's since the day it was built in 1073."

Barton raised his eyebrows. "Well, that's a long time," he stated as if he was impressed. I found it to be rude of him to react that way. The white-haired man on the other hand, didn't seem to notice the man was not at all impressed.

"Be welcome, the both of you," the man said politely. "My name is Lucius Malfoy. I'm a friend of your father."

I nodded and offered him a hand as a greeting. He looked surprised and hesitated, but shook it anyway.

"This is my wife, Narcissa." He gestured to the well-dressed lady who nodded and offered me her hand. I shook it and nodded at her as a greeting. She seemed to appreciate that.

"And this is my son, Draco," he introduced the white haired boy. The boy smiled slightly. I didn't get why he was so happy. But happiness is always better than sadness, so I couldn't care.

"Well, I think this will go well, so I think it's my time to leave," Barton said. He gazed at me with an unreadable look. "I wish you the best of luck, Ellea." He turned around and walked down the path, back to the gate.

I looked over my shoulder and looked at him for a moment. Barton didn't look back. His wish of luck had been enough goodbye for him. When the gates opened, I returned my full attention the family.

"Well, let's go inside," the woman said. "It's cold outside."

As I walked through the big front door, I noticed the height of the main hall. I looked up at the impressive, highly decorated ceiling and was amazed by the big, wooden stairs in front of us. All the beautiful furniture was nicely lacquered which made them reflect the sunlight which shone through the big windows. I could not imagine they lived in the Manor on their own. It was too big for that. Maybe they had a really big family in which could blend in for a while. Until I moved to another place again. Made myself just walk around the rooms where no one was at that moment- which was pretty likely in such an enormous castle-, so I didn't have to talk to anyone. After all those secrets I had to hide for so long, I could handle that now. That would not be so difficult.

"Impressed?" the man asked after seeing me staring at the ceiling with engravings of angels, werewolves, fairies and so much more.

I looked at him and slightly nodded. "A bit," I replied, downgrading my thoughts.

I heard some stumbling sounds above the stairs. I looked up and saw a small, skin coloured troll-like creature. It wore a dirty rag, which looked like a pillowcase from ages ago, and carried a laundry basket full of clothes, which seemed way too heavy for his seize. The creature had dropped the basket and had fallen on the ground. It quickly looked at us with a face full of fear, got up and carried the basket further out of my sight.

I wondered what the creature was and why it was so afraid. When I looked at the family they seemed to find the ordeal very ordinary, but unpleasant. Was the troll-like creature a housekeeper?

They walked to an adjacent room. It appeared to a cosy living room.

Mr. Malfoy seated himself in a beautiful leather armchair. His son on the couch. Mrs. Malfoy waited at the door.

"Would you like some tea?" she asked.

"Yes, please," I replied.

I expected her to go to the kitchen and make some tea, but instead she called with a steady voice: "Dobby."

I was surprised. I hadn't met a Dobby when I had met the Malfoy's.

The little troll-like creature stumbled into the living room, barefooted, in his dirty rag, looking a bit afraid. I stared at the creature, but it seemed to not like that, so I stopped.

"We want some tea," Ms. Malfoy demanded.

I stared at her in confusion. Why was she demanding it from the creature? Why didn't she just asked it? That would have been polite. And I expected someone with so much money to be able to afford such an enormous home found politeness to be very important.

"Yes, mistress," the creature quickly replied with a high pitched voice and disappeared out of the room.

"A good cleaner, but terrible at other tasks," Mr. Malfoy stated coldly.

I stared at him in confusion. So the creature was indeed their housekeeper. Not so strange they had one. The manor was enormous.

Mr. Malfoy had seen my confusion and he said: "Dobby is the worst cook of all the house-elves our family has ever had. He always burns himself on the pans, which always cause large blisters on his hands. So when he uses magic, or touches anything or whatever he does with his hands, he moans so annoyingly."

I was flabbergasted by his remark, but tried to hide it. The complete family found these kind of things very normal. The moans out of pain from a small creature, annoying? What was going on here? How could they!?

"Please make it yourself comfortable," Mr. Malfoy stated politely.

I did like he had said and seated myself on the couch next to the boy. Mrs. Malfoy seated herself in another armchair.

"Well, how are you doing, Ellea?" Mr. Malfoy asked out of politeness.

I had no idea how the answer the question and started with some mumbling.

"I get that it's a difficult question in your position," Mr. Malfoy remarked. "So let me ask it in a different way. How did you handle everything that has happened?"

I was surprised at how straightforward he was and tried to come up with the right answer.

"Maybe I'm too direct," he said. "I just thought that small talk was inappropriate in this case. I mean, you are here for a reason. Not talking about that would make all of this feel more difficult than necessary."

At that moment, the creature came back in. He carried a tray with a teapot, three teacups and a small sugar bowl on it. The tray was way too big for him to carry and he had troubles with not dropping everything on the ground. He placed the tray with some effort on the coffee table. None of the other people seemed to make effort to help him. Their restraint made me hesitant to help him, which made me feel even worse for the creature. The creature sighed in relief after he was done. As he stepped back from the coffee table, he stumbled over my feed and fell on the ground.

"I'm sorry," I apologized automatically. "I should have moved them. My fault."

The creature quickly stood up and looked in my eyes for a moment. His eyes showed fear, bewilderment and confusion. I smiled at him and hoped it would be okay. He ran out of the room in response. Now I was confused.

I turned my attention back to the couch and found Draco looking in shock at me. His parents looked more surprised. This made me even more confused.

"Why did you do that?" the boy asked, clearly disgusted by what I had just done.

"What do you mean?"

Now, it was his turn to be confused. "But you shouldn't help house-elves. They are less than us!" Draco exclaimed. "They don't deserve apologies! Never!"

"Ellea, doesn't know that yet, Draco," Lucius told the boy calmly. "Don't forget that she has grown up in another world. The Muggle Word." He pronounced 'Muggle World' as if it was the filthiest thing ever.

Draco sighed and thought I was just mentally retarded or something.

"That creature is a house-elf. They are here on earth to serve their masters. We are Dobby's masters. He serves us and us only," Mr. Malfoy explained.

"So he is your personal servant?" I asked unbelievingly. "Yes, exactly," he started. "They are, just like Draco has just mentioned, less than us. You shouldn't help them and there is no need to be especially polite to them. They are here to serve us."

"But why s he less than us? I mean, he speaks and it looks like he can do nearly everything we can."

Mr. Malfoy frowned. "That is a long story, young girl, a long story. But don't think that we are the bad guys here. This is how it is in the Wizarding World and how it should be. Yes, there are people who think that this is nonsense, but they are disgusting people. But remember as well, house-elves are not only less than us because _we wizards_ want it that way. _They_ want it as well. House-elves are very obedient and like it to serve. To serve their masters."

I stared at the tray the creature had just brought us. What would he think about all of this?

"I'm surprised that you don't know these kind of things. Your father is a profound advocate for blood purity, low rights for magical creatures and much more. Just like me, my wife and our son." He gave the boy a small nod, who seemed to like the small appreciation of his father, as if he didn't get that that much.

I had never known Severus thought about the world that way. That some people were better than others. And what the hell was blood purity!?

Mrs. Malfoy looked surprised and gave Mr. Malfoy a quick glance. "Didn't you know that, darling? Severus is a sharp supporter of blood purity. That's why he couldn't go on with the relationship between you and your mother."

I frowned. "How do you know about the relationship?" I asked suspiciously.

"It was in the newspaper, dear. Your mother's letter. Completely," she replied calmly.

I remembered the Auror had said that.

"Bur you didn't know about Severus' believes?" Mr. Malfoy asked.

"No, I didn't, I guess, but I don't really know what blood purity is."

Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy looked at each other and seemed to consider their actions.

"A wizard is blood pure when there is little to no Muggle blood in the family history. There are only a few of those family's left. Family's like the Blacks, where my wife is a descendant of." He gave her a proud nod. To which she responded with a small arrogant smile. "The Lestrange family. And of course, my own, the Malfoy family. Already pure from the beginning of the magical community."

"So people who are born between a wizard and someone who does not do magic is not pure?"

"Indeed. Magical people who get children with Muggles get no-pure children. Even if the magical person comes from a pure-blood family the children won't be pure.

"And you are against that?" I asked him.

He gave his wife an uncertain look, but she nodded to assure him it was okay to let me in on their believes.

"Yes. We think the ability to perform magic should stay between the already existing family's."

"So you are against what I am?" I asked them. "I am born between a wizard and someone who can't perform magic."

"And that is a difficult question. Your mother comes from a well family. Some Muggles descendants, but not that much. Your mother has the magical gene in her veins, but it's just not active. So as an answer to your question: no. I'm not against what you are. You're a witch. Born between a wizard, Severus, and your mother, someone from a wizarding family. Your father is a powerful wizard and he made a mistake by starting a relationship with your mother. I'm against relationships between magical people and non-magical people, including Squibs. However, he didn't know she was one at the time. At the time he found out, he ended the relationship. The best move to make, if you ask me."

"So, you are against people like my mother? They shouldn't exist in your opinion?" I asked monotonously.

Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy looked at each other again.

"I think it's better to talk to your father about this," Mrs. Malfoy stated seriously.

I nodded. I had to speak to him about this. How did he think about me? The Wizarding World? And my mom? If I ever had the chance to speak to him in private again, I had to ask. We had to talk. I had heard some of his believes in the basement, that time he wanted to truly test if I was indeed his, but those had not sounded so radical as Mr. Malfoy's believes did.

"I know, this all sounds strange to you, but this is how it is. Your father will explain more about it, but for now, you have to keep this silent. Our ideas are not fully excepted here in the Wizarding World. If you tell someone, you will bring Severus and yourself in even more problems," Mrs. Malfoy explained. "And I guess that's the last thing you want right now."

"We understand you won't believe us right now, looking at were you have grown up, but your father will convince you that blood purity is good for the entire Wizarding World," Mr. Malfoy added to support his wife.

**Author's Note:**

**Hey reader!**

**What will Ellea do with the believes of the Malfoy family? And what will the Malfoy's do with her different view? Read next week's chapter to find out.**

**See you next week!**


	39. The dos and don'ts at Malfoy Manor

A silence had fallen over our conversation. I needed time to process all of this. We drank our tea in silence and when we were done, Mrs. Malfoy asked: "well, Draco, maybe you want to show Ellea around?"

The boy nodded happily and jumped of the couch. He walked in front and I followed. We left the adults behind in the living room and walked through the front door, outside.

"I like the garden way much more than inside," he said. "I like flying on my broomsticks the most and I'm not allowed to do that inside of course. Shall I show you around while flying? Easier, I think. Our grounds are quite big," the boy proposed. He sounded proudly and more arrogantly now.

His attitude elicited bad feelings from my side. I hoped he wasn't so arrogant all the time, but by looking at the enormous house he lived in, I didn't expect any good.

"Can you fly?" I asked him wonderingly. Severus had refused to teach me how to fly on a broomstick. He had said it was dangerous. Why would his parents allow him to do so if it was? If flying was like I had imagined it, it would be very dangerous indeed. Would wizards be daredevils and was Severus just a coward in their opinion? I could not imagine that.

Draco looked surprised, proud and arrogant at the same time. "Of course I can," he stated. "My father has bought me a Comet 260." He looked at me with a triumphant face as he said so. I had no idea where he was talking about and shrugged.

"Don't you think that's awesome?" Draco asked.

I shrugged again. "I don't know what it is, so I can't get really hyped about it."

Draco looked surprised. "You know less about the Wizarding world than I had expected."

I frowned upon his comment. I felt offended, even though he was kind of right. I had, in my opinion, discovered a lot about magic in a short time. I had been proud of myself, cause sometimes you are allowed to be, than it isn't arrogant. But Draco destroyed my complete self-confidence with his comment.

He had seen my frown and said: "I didn't mean it in that way."

"Is that an apology?" I asked him.

"Malfoys never apologize., he stated monotonously as if he had practised that particular sentence.

"Why?" I asked him unbelievingly.

"We don't have to, because of who we are," he replied arrogantly.

"You mean 'pure-bloods'?" I asked him firmly.

"Well, partly yes," he replied nicely. "But also because my father has a lot of power in the Wizarding World. And we have a lot of money of course."

His attitude made me sick.

Draco had seen my face and tried to change the subject by asking: "you don't know how to fly, do you?"

Of course I couldn't. I lived in the Muggle World and had lived most of my life without knowing the real existence of magic. Was he ridiculing me? Or did he really not know?

"No," I simply stated to not offend Draco.

He frowned as if he was in thought. "Maybe I can take you on mine." he said. "But we have to be careful. I have never taken anyone on the back of my broom before."

I was enthusiastic about the fact I could fly. On a broomstick of all things! I knew it would be dangerous. However, I didn't really care at the moment. My enthusiasm was too big.

"I will go and get it. Wait here," he said as he walked back inside and returned a moment later with a shining broomstick.

The thing looked not like a normal broomstick. And it wasn't of course. The branches were bounded together with three silverfish steel bands. Two steel sticks were attached to the upper band. The sticks looked like stirrups, but how could that be true. The thing was a broomstick. A flying broomstick.

Draco looked very proud as he held the broomstick in his hand. He expected me to be impressed and looked at me with an expecting look.

I was impressed. For sure. The thing was a flying broom! But I wasn't impressed in the way he had hoped for.

"Are those things some kind of stirrups?" I asked him, while pointing at the steel sticks.

Draco looked at the steel sticks. "Well, uhm, yes, I think so. The person who flies on the broom, places his or her feet on those." He looked at his broom and smiled. "Shall I show you how to fly on it?" he asked.

I raised my eyebrows and nodded with a big grin on my face. "Yes, I would love to see that."

Draco smiled proudly and held the broom between his legs. Then, he pushed of.

He hovered above the ground, his feet not on the stirrups.

"Why so surprised?" he asked inquisitively and firmly as if he was offended by my surprise. "Had you expected me to fall?" he asked with an arrogant smile.

"I really don't know, Draco. Maybe it's the fact your just flying," I joked.

He laughed. "That's what you get when you hang around with Muggles too much."

I had hoped we would become closer by making jokes, but he just kept offending me.

Draco noticed my anger towards his remarks again and said: "Well, ehm, than I will show you how it's done."

Draco flew quickly high up the air, placing his feet on the stirrups as he flew faster and faster. Then, he suddenly stopped, high above the roof of the Manor.

"Wanna see a nosedive!" he shouted from above.

"Are you sure?" I shouted back.

He didn't even answer. His broom just turned to the ground and reached an enormous speed as it flew towards the white pebbles of the Malfoy Manor garden.

I gasped as I didn't see him tuning up again and feared for the boy's life. But fortunately, he turned his broom up as he reached the hight of a tree.

He flew to the bushes and rounded those. He levelled up his speed and flew towards me! I jumped to the side, at the right time (in my opinion), and felt the wind blowing next to me when Draco passed me with the speed of a rocket. He flew high up in the air again and lowered his speed.

He looked down at me and shouted: "That was faster than yesterday!"

I laughed out of the relief he didn't hit me.

At that moment, the front door of the manor slammed open.

"Draco!" his mother cried as she ran out of her house. "By Merlin's beard, what are you doing!"

Draco nearly fell of his broom when he heard her. His face was full of horror when he saw hers, completely red and full of anger.

"Come down, immediately!" she yelled.

He did like she had asked and landed on the high-gloss white pebbles.

She walked towards him with big steps and grabbed Draco's ear tightly. His shocked face turned into one of pain and he grabbed his mother's firm hand with his to try to make her stop. But Mrs. Malfoy was certain of her case.

"How many times have I told you not make those extremely high dives of yours!?"

Draco groaned.

"At least a dozen times, I think."

I just stood there as she was punishing Draco for his dangerous behaviour. I didn't know what to do and just stood there, feeling uncomfortable.

Mrs. Malfoy looked over her shoulder at me. Her face softened and she let go of Draco's ear, which seemed red, even from a distance. Draco started rubbing his ear in agony, but didn't cry.

Mrs. Malfoy sighed and looked at her son. "Normally, I would send you to your room for the rest of the day." She looked at me again, then at Draco again. "However, we have a guest today and you haven't showed her the rest of the house yet, so unless you want to spend the rest of the day in your room, alone, I would get yourself inside, rather quickly."

Draco didn't need to hear that twice and quickly walked over to me.

"Come on, let's go," he whispered fiercely as he passed me.

We walked inside through the front door and left Mrs. Malfoy behind in the garden.

Draco sighed as he closed the door and rubbed his ear again.

"Are you okay, Draco," I asked him.

"Yeah, Yeah, I'm fine. My mom can be hard sometimes, but she's nice." He gave me an uncomfortable smile and walked up the stairs.

He showed me all the rooms and I was amazed by how much rooms a house can possibly have. Most of the rooms were quite greenish and had lots of wooden furniture.

Draco wasn't all too happy anymore and his arrogancy had also faded like ice in the sun.

One room he showed was apparently my bedroom. It had a beautiful four poster bed with green bed sheets, a little desk and other useful furniture. But what surprise me, was that I got my own bathroom, adjacent to the bathroom.

Draco showed a little smile as I thanked him for the room.

The last room he showed was the most beautiful one to me, their own library. A big room with a high and decorated ceiling, a nice polished floor- like all the rooms had- and large bookcases. Severus' ones looked like cheap crap from Ikea compared to these ones. The bookcases were so high, some had a ladder, so someone could grab a book from the highest shelve. I big fireplace warmed the room. There were some chairs around the fireplace so someone could nicely sit and read and there was even a desk by a big church-like window in front of the door.

I had not even realised I had shown I was so amazed, but Draco had, because he asked: "I guess, you like reading?"

I laughed uncomfortably, feeling caught. "Yeah, I like reading quite much."

"Well, then you will have plenty of books here." He waved with his arms.

"And? Do you like reading?" I asked him.

"Not that much, but I like playing Gobstones," he said happily.

"I don't know that game."

Draco looked surprised. "But your grandmother was one the best Gobstones captains the Hogwarts Gobstones Team has ever had. She has even been the President of the Hogwarts Gobstone Club, in addition to being the Captain."

"How do you know that?" I asked confused. Why did he know these things about my family?

"My dad had been a Slytherin too, you know. Then you know those kind of things about your house," he explained.

"Was she a Slytherin as well, my grandmother?" I asked eagerly.

Draco puffed unbelievingly. "Eileen Prince? A Slytherin? Of course she was! The descendants of the Princes are Slytherins for generations. They are pure-bloods, you know. Then you easily get sorted into Slytherin. But it kind of surprises me you don't know all of this."

"I don't know I'm a witch that long, you know," I stated uncomfortably. Draco knew apparently more about my family than I myself did.

"And, ehm, is Eileen Prince my mom's or-"

"Your father's side," he interrupted me. "I don't know so much about your mother's side, but I overheard my father saying to my mother they were no special witches and wizards. Just normal. Nothing more, nothing less."

It was strange, hearing him say that about my mom's family. She had never talked about them. Only in her letter. And that had contained nothing good about them.

"But shall we go and play Gobstones? I just got a new set from my father. We sometimes play together, but he doesn't like getting dirty. I play most of the time with Grab and Goyle."

"And they are?"

"My friends. My father is friends with their fathers. That's how we met," he explained. "I'm sure you will meet them one day. They are nice. We like the same things."

I nodded.

"Now, I will get my set. I will see you outside the front door, okay?"

I nodded again and the boy ran upstairs.

I waited outside for him and he came with a lot of what looked like marbles.

Gobstones appeared to be an ancient wizarding game that resembles marbles, the principal difference being that every time a point is conceded, the winning stone squirts a foul-smelling liquid into the loser's face.

It was a lot of fun and I even won some times. I lost the first games, but won my first one after five games. I laughed as Draco got sprayed with the foul-smelling liquid. Draco didn't find it funny at all at first, but laughed when he saw the liquid dripping off my face from the passed games.

I hadn't count the games and how many times I won, but afterwards, we were both smelling like rotten fish mixed with vomit and decided to make it a tie.

Mrs. Malfoy wasn't all too happy with our little tournament. She shook her head and told us to take a shower.

And as I washed the smelly liquid of my body, I knew Gobstones was my new favourite game.

**Author's Note:**

**There is also a new chapter for The Magical Daughter (Snape's perspective) story, which you can find in the stories I have written. It's chapter seven. And there will be no chapter(s) next week due to this.**


	40. Flying lesson 1: just listen

The past two days with the Malfoy family had been nice, but awkward as well. Playing with Draco was fun and even though he sometimes said things about the world I didn't agree with, he was a friendly boy. His parents on the other hand…

His parents were harder, more majestic than Draco. They distanced themselves from Draco and me and didn't talk so much. Not even during dinner.

The first day had been good overall. Playing Gobstones and his show off on his broom were a good way to learn to know each other. And even though his parents had shown a bit of their real side, their believes about the world and how things should be, Draco made up for it.

The second day at Malfoy Manor had more, what seemed, like a normal day. Mr. Malfoy had gone to the Ministry to work. Ms. Malfoy had stayed at home to watch over us.

Draco and I had played hide-and-seek in the enormous mansion, which had ended in a win for Draco. I had hidden myself at places he had found to be obvious places to hide, in contrast to Draco who had hidden himself at places I had never come up with. After at least thirty minutes of seeking, I had to give up and call out his name. Otherwise I would have never found him. He never revealed were he had been hiding. Then he would say: "what is secret should remain a secret, otherwise it's not a secret anymore." And he was right of course.

Draco had asked his mother if he was allowed to get his broomstick back-since his mother had taken it from him after his show off outside-. His mother had simply shaken her head and looked at him with a firm face.

Today, Draco tried it again.

"But mom, please," Draco pleaded. "I want to learn Ellea how to fly."

His mother seemed to be in doubt after his argument.

"So she can be like a real witch," he added with big puppy eyes.

She slightly smiled and nodded. "Well, alright then, Draco. We need to learn her how to be a proper witch and flying would make a good start."

Draco smiled brightly and looked at me with a sparkle in his eyes.

"But only," his mother began strictly, "if the two of you stay beneath the leaves of the trees. I don't want the two of you to end up at St Mungo's."

Draco nodded in agreement.

"If I see you two do differently," she said while giving me a firm look as well, "you will both have a punishment you will never forget."

"No, that's all right, mom," Draco said trustworthy.

Ms. Malfoy nodded at stood up from her chair in the living room to get her son's broomstick. Draco seemed happier than ever.

"Now, you will finally learn how to fly," he stated with a huge grin. "But I don't understand why no one has ever taught you this before."

"Muggle World, remember?" I stated sarcastically.

"Oh, yeah," Draco said uneasily. "I sometimes forget that. I only hang around with other pure-bloods, you know."

I simply nodded to not start about the subject of the purity of blood again.

"You will certainly like them," Draco said to change the subject as well.

"Who?" I asked.

"Crabbe and Goyle, my friends I have told you about."

"Oh, yeah, we will see, you know,"

"No, I'm sure of it. And I think they will like you as well. I hope you will like Quidditch, cause we do. We're pretty good, if you ask me," he stated arrogantly as he walked to the front door.

His mother walked to the front door as well, Draco's broomstick in her hand.

"Be careful, Draco," she stated worriedly.

"Don't worry, mom," Draco assured her. "We will stay low."

Even though Ms. Malfoy looked worried, she still gave Draco the broom.

We ran outside and he showed me his broom.

"Look a broom is a powerful thing that wants to be tamed by a master," he explained. "After you have shown it you are the master, it's not that hard. Just learning how to move properly when you turn and so on, but that's easy."

He handed me the broom. I took it uncomfortably, remembering Severus had said it was dangerous.

"Isn't it dangerous, Draco?"

"What? Flying?" he asked unbelievingly. He laughed. "For a Muggle-born maybe, but for us? Never."

"But what if I fall off? Like, high in the sky?"

"Don't be so nervous," Draco stated. "You need to be confident, otherwise things like that can happen. A broom won't listen to you when it feels you're afraid."

"Confidence?"

"Yes. A lot," he repeated. "But, why would you be afraid? There is a lot of magical power in your bloodline. This should be a piece of cake for you."

"Well, it might be in my DNA, but I have never really noticed it," I said without any confidence.

"But that's because you have never performed magic."

"I have blown up enough glass things."

Draco laughed. "That's not what I mean. I mean, real magic, with a wand. When that time comes. You will see the power you possess."

"I don't really feel it, Draco. I don't think I have that piece of power in my DNA. Maybe it has skipped a generation."

"Oh, come on, Ellea."

"Even though I want to have the confidence, I don't have it. I'm afraid to screw it up and hurt myself and/or others."

"Won't happen. Now step over the broom."

"But-"

"No more talking," he interrupted me. "Do as I say and it will be fine."

I hesitantly did like he had said and placed the broom between my legs. I looked at Draco, expectantly, but was already afraid for the next step.

"And now, you just push off."

"Just push off!?" I exclaimed. After seeing so much of magic, I didn't believe I really belonged in the Wizarding World. I mean, me, performing magic? I was good at letting stuff explode, but that was really it.

"Maybe you can better stand on that little wall next to the flowerbeds. Easier, I guess."

I did like Draco had suggested and hoped I would gain some confidence by looking over the garden. No success. Draco passed the wall and stood behind me.

"You can do it, Ellea," he encouraged me. "Just push off. It's not even six feet high."

"You can have your broom back, Draco," I told him.

I heard Draco sigh. He climbed up the wall and looked at me with a disgusting frown, he didn't say a word. Then, he pushed me.

I fell forward, feet first, broom between my legs. I thought I would hit the ground but, I didn't. Just a feet above the ground, I kept hovering, My feet not touching the ground.

I felt astonished, immensely happy and overall strange. How was this possible? Me, flying?

Draco laughed happily. "You see! Your floating!"

"Yeah," I sighed unbelievingly.

"Now, lean forward and try to really fly."

_Well, why not trying to fly after floating?_ I thought, leaned forward and took off way faster then I had intended.

I flew way to quickly in the direction of the manor and saw the bricks in the wall becoming bigger and bigger.

"Pull up!" Draco yelled from behind.

So that's what I did. I pulled as hard as I could and the broom flew high up in the sky. I pulled to the side and the broom turned and stopped in the air. The manor looked incredibly small from so high. I saw Draco jumping in the garden, but I couldn't hear his voice.

As I looked around me, I saw birds flying in the shape of a 'V'. Not that weird, but the scary thing was that the birds flew on the same height I was at. I started shaking when I looked down at the manor again.

_What if I make one bad decision up here? Just one wrong move? Then it's game over._

I realised that this was where Severus had been talking about. As I was creating a long-lasting fear for heights, I lightly pushed the broomstick down and flew down.

The manor became bigger and bigger. I was afraid a sudden gust of wind would blow me off the broom, but nothing happened. I slowly landed on the grass in the middle of the garden.

Draco ran towards me and fiercely grabbed the broom.

"Are you a complete idiot!" he whispered angrily as he pushed me. "What if my mother has seen you!? Then we can forget flying ever again!"

"But you said I had to pull up!" I exclaimed, still feeling the adrenaline of the height.

"Yes, but not that high!"

"It's my first time! What had you expected!"

"Maybe some more talent and confidence," Draco snarled. "I bet my mom has seen us! We are screwed, Ellea!"

"I don't think you need to bet, there she comes."

Draco turned around in utter shock. He sighed deeply and walked towards his mother.

"Hey, mom," he could say before she grabbed his ear.

"You think I didn't see it!" she cried as she grabbed my ear as well. "I knew I had to know better with the two of you."

"I'm sorry, mom," Draco said in agony. And now I knew how much her firm grip hurt.

She dragged us back towards the manor while she kept scolding and yelling how irresponsible we had been.

She walked towards the library and pushed us inside.

"I want all the books alphabetized," she stated strictly.

"What!? Mom, no, all those books?" Draco pleaded while rubbing his ear.

"Maybe you're right, Draco," she stated. "what about on Hogwarts subject as well?"

Draco and I sighed.

She slammed the door shut with a loud bang. And Draco and I looked at each other.

Draco puffed exhaustedly, even though he hadn't even started yet. "Do you think she really wants us to do it?"

"Seriously!? She dragged us by our ears to the library!"

"Okay, okay," Draco sighed. "It's just that she hasn't let me do this before."

The both of us looked at the high bookcases. It was going to be a lot of work.

After a minute of looking at the bookcases and realising how much time this was going to cost, I proposed: "maybe we should get started. Otherwise we will never be allowed to leave."

Draco sighed. He was very reluctant to start, but grabbed a book from the shelve and asked: "Maybe we should get them all out first, don't you think?"

I nodded and we started getting all the books out. At first, the books looked interesting, but after book 45 I stopped reading the titles. The work was boring and Draco seemed even more bored then me, which I doubted could be the case, cause there couldn't be a level higher than my boredom.

After what seemed like an eternity, I heard some voices behind the only door in the room. Draco had heard it as well and we both stared at the door.

Draco looked at me and raised his eyebrows. "Shall we listen?" he whispered.

"Eavesdropping? On your parents?" I asked unbelievingly.

Draco simply shrugged. "Your choice if you're going to listen, but I'm definitely." He walked to the door and placed his ear against it.

I couldn't suppress the urge to listen as well, ran to the door and placed my ear on the door just like Draco.

"Is he doing good, Lucius?" I heard Ms. Malfoy ask.

"Yes, for now he does, but we don't know for how long he will," Mr. Malfoy sighed.

"But you can't tell me there isn't a healer in the entire Wizarding World who knows how to solve his injury," Ms. Malfoy stated firmly.

Mr. Malfoy sighed again. "I'm afraid so, Narcissa, but they are going to try to cure him. There is no other known case of this problem, but his healer has an idea how to fix it."

"That is good to hear, Lucius."

"I know. At least a spark of hope."

"And how was it at the Ministry?"

Lucius laughed slightly maliciously. "Everything is working out like I have come up with, my love. Everyone I want to do something will do what I want."

"Did you give them money?" Ms. Malfoy asked.

"Of course I did!" Mr. Malfoy exclaimed lavishly. "If you want something to be done your way, you should give them something to do it for."

"And did you contact the Daily Prophet?"

"Yes. Yes, I did. Anonymously of course."

"And are they coming?"

"I expect so. I told him we will be there at two o'clock, so if a journalist is there, everything will go as planned."

"But what if that journalist doesn't come?"

"Don't worry, Narcissa. The Daily Prophet will come. This is a big story for them. The whole Wizarding World is watching. Of course they will be there tomorrow."

Ms. Malfoy sighed. "Are you going to tell the children tonight or tomorrow?" she asked.

"Both," Mr. Malfoy stated. "They need to know very well what's on the line."

"But they are just children, Lucius."

"Do you want Severus to end up in Azkaban, Narcissa!? He is my best friend and he is not going there if I can stop it!" Mr. Malfoy shouted.

Draco and I looked at each other I shock. Draco was apparently not used to hear his parents arguing, but I was more shocked about hearing Severus' name. He was in trouble and Mr. Malfoy was helping him apparently. It was clear Draco and I were important for Mr. Malfoy's plan, but what was the plan?

**Author's Note:**

**There is also a new chapter for The Magical Daughter (Snape's perspective) story, which you can find in the stories I have written. It's chapter eight. And there will be no chapter(s) next week due to this.**


	41. A visit to St Mungo's

We walked through the great hall of St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. It looked old, 19th century old. The white ceiling had foxed, some planks creaked as we stepped on them and the paintings on the walls showed people in clothes I had only seen in history books.

Mr. Malfoy walked in front of the group, confidently. People in the chairs looked up to watch his fluttering coat made of black silk and black fur. Their eyes gave the implication they recognized him, which wasn't a strange thought. Mr. Malfoy worked for the Ministry of Magic. I didn't know how high in rank he was, but by the look of his house, pretty high up.

His wife, Ms. Malfoy walked next to me and Draco. Her face was emotionless, hard. Even Severus with his face of ice would say: "that's an emotionless face." Ms. Malfoy wasn't the type to feel nothing, or at least she didn't seem like the type, but I expected she acted her careless face. I had overheard her conversation with Mr. Malfoy the day before. She genuinely cared for Severus well-being. Mr. Malfoy had said he and Severus were best friends. She probably cared about it because her husband cared. However, she didn't show a thing in front of all those other witches and wizards in the waiting room.

The room was filled with witches and wizards of all kinds. Tall, small, fat, slim and even one with a green skin, who didn't seem to be all too happy about that. A few chairs further, a young man looked at his arm which dangled next to the man's chair as if all the bones in his arm had disappeared. A witch in chair across the room sneezed loudly and buried her face in her hands. When she looked up again, she was holding a little, yellow chicken. I was surprised, but she seemed rather grumpy. She rolled her eyes and dropped the chicken in a metal bucket, which was filled with other yellow chickens. But the most disgusting one was the old man who kept throwing up snails in a bucket. The slime dripped of his lips. I nearly had to throw up by only the sight of it, but I pushed the feeling away, somehow afraid of starting to throw up snails as well.

Mr. Malfoy walked to the desk in the centre of the room and gave the nurse behind the desk a majestic look.

"Can I help you?" the nurse asked.

"I'm looking for Mr. Snape," Mr. Malfoy replied.

The nurse frowned. "We don't have a patient whose name is Snape."

"Oh really," Mr. Malfoy stated unbelievingly. "I have heard otherwise from some people at the Ministry. I have permission to visit him."

"Nobody is allowed to visit Mr. Snape, sir," she said firmly.

"I have friends in the Ministry who say I can." He got an envelope out of his coat and handed it to the woman, who read the letter very carefully.

"I have to discuss this with his healer," she said and wanted to walk way, but Mr. Malfoy stopped her.

"Tell him my name is Lucius Malfoy. The Lucius Malfoy who donates _every month_ very generously to this hospital, if I might say, and probably pays your and his paycheck _every month_. That Lucius Malfoy."

The nurse was genuinely baffled. "We know who you are, sir, and about your generosity, but his healer was very clear. However, I will see what I can do." She walked away and our little group waited at the desk.

"A good move, Lucius," Ms. Malfoy complimented her husband.

"Thank you, Narcissa." He took a step closer to his wife. "I don't give all that money out of the kindness of my heart," he whispered. "If I want them to do something-"

"They feel obligated," she finished his sentence as if he had said it a hundred times already.

"Exactly, Narcissa," he stated proudly.

The nurse returned with good news.

"You can all visit Mr. Snape."

Draco and I smiled at each other. The plan was working.

"But the healer wants to speak with you first. There are some rules," she added.

Mr. Malfoy nodded and our group followed the nurse through all the similar looking hallways.

It was all very grey mixed with some white. It was somehow very depressing. Widows in the walls revealed rooms behind them. Rooms with patients in beds and sometimes with people behind desks.

We walked into such a room with a desk. Behind the desk sat a young man, looking into a file as if it was a puzzle of a 1000 pieces. He looked up as he heard the door.

"I heard you have come for a visit?" he asked.

"Yes," Mr. Malfoy simply replied. "I have permission from the Ministry."

The man nodded and walked passed the desk to shook our hands.

"I'm Brian Westminster, his healer," the man introduced himself. "And since I'm his healer, there are some things I want to tell you before you can enter the room," the healer told us. "'He's awake now, but he's tired and not completely communicative. Just don't expect too much. And you have got 20 minutes."

"Only 20?" Mr. Malfoy asked.

"Yes. We want to resume the treatment after that."

"Can't you resume while we are there?"

"Technically yes, but we do the treatment while he's asleep, so if we resume while you are there, you can't talk to him," the healer explained.

Mr. Malfoy nodded. "We will be gone in 20 minutes."

"Good. That is his room." He pointed to a door at the end of the hall. "Room 394. I believe he can use some visitors, like nearly everyone who ends up here. I will see you in 20 minutes." The healer nodded as to say goodbye and walked away.

Mr. Malfoy sighed to prepare himself for entering the room, looked at his wife, then at us.

"You know what to do," he stated seriously.

Me and Draco nodded.

We walked to the end of the hallway. Mr. Malfoy stepped into the room first and didn't look all too happy about what he saw.

As I entered the room I saw Severus, seemingly asleep. He just lay there, completely still. His face was as pale as that of a corpse. His chest rose up and down, some machines next to his bed beeped, those were the only indications he was still alive.

Mr. Malfoy silently walked to the bed and got himself a folding chair which stood against the wall. He looked at us, then at his friend.

"Good morning, sunshine," he whispered jokingly.

"Good morning, Snow White," a hoarse voice retorted in a whispering way.

"Glad you've still got your sense of humour," Mr. Malfoy commented.

"Did I ever have that in the first place?"

Mr. Malfoy smiled. "Don't be so hard on yourself, Severus. And why don't you take another sip of that water?" He pointed at a glass of water on the nightstand. "Your voice sound like a sawmill."

"I have tried, but it doesn't get any better unfortunately. I haven't had much to drink the last days, because of the sleeping, and this is what it does," he coughed.

It remained silent for a while before Severus' hoarse sounding voice asked: "why are you here, Lucius?"

"Can't a friend just visit an ill friend in the hospital?"

Severus did not answer.

"But you're right, Severus," Mr. Malfoy admitted. "I'm here for a special reason. Namely, I have a plan to get you out of prison."

I heard Severus slightly chuckle from the other side of the room.

"You always have a plan, Lucius, you always do, but maybe it-"

"I know my plans do not always work out," Mr. Malfoy interrupted him. "But it's worth trying, Severus. And up till this point, it's working."

"That's not what I mean, Lucius. I mean that they can't swipe this mess underneath the carpet. I will probably leave this place as a free man."

Mr. Malfoy smiled unbelievingly. "Your healer told me you would not really be communicative, but you have thought about this pretty hard apparently."

Severus puffed. "He can say so much, but who's the Potion Master here?"

"Well, maybe he was a bit right, cause you're wrong, Severus. They _are_ planning on swiping it underneath the carpet."

"How?" Severus' hoarse voice asked.

"If nobody says a thing about it. Who would know? And do you think they would believe your word over everyone in the court and St Mungo's? No chance, my friend. Every court member keeps his mouth shut, afraid to lose his job. And about St Mungo's, only your healer, one nurse and the lady behind the desk know you're here. The Ministry has bribed them. And if your healer gets you good again, he gets a bonus of 200 Galleons." Mr. Malfoy sighed. "Everybody here is paid to shut up. You're not going to win this without me."

"What's your plan then?" Severus whispered tiredly.

"The Ministry wants to prevent the common wizard from finding out the truth, no matter what it costs. So, we are going to make a big show out of this. I have already tipped the Daily Prophet we are here and what's going on, anonymous of course. A reporter can sneak into St Mungo's to take some pictures any minute now, so this has to look very sweet."

Severus smiled sarcastically. "Then I expect _she_ is here," he stated disappointedly.

"yes, I brought her with me. It has to look like you two really care about each other. That would induce more compassion."

Severus sighed in irritation. "What did you have in mind then?" he asked agitatedly.

"You don't have to do anything, Severus. She just needs to sit next to your bed, closely, and that's it."

"And the story?"

"No story for you. The door will stay closed, so nobody can hear us. I just hope the reporter will take a picture through the window in the wall between here and the hallway. Maybe the reporter will ask a comment from me and/or Ellea after leaving, but not from you. Your healer makes sure nobody else enters the room, but I bet he doesn't watches the window. And taking a photo goes quickly, so by the time he can stop the reporter, he's already gone."

Mr. Malfoy stood up from his chair, got another folding chair and placed it at the end of the bed.

"If you want to sit there, Ellea." He gestured to the chair he had been sitting on and I followed his plan. Mr. Malfoy had told me and Draco the plan already. The evening before he explained it for the first time. Again in the morning to make sure, especially I, knew how to act. I needed to know how to act around Severus to create us much compassion as possible. But the most difficult part was to prepare for expectable questions from the Daily Prophet. I had practised the whole evening with Mr. Malfoy and after a lot of practising, he was satisfied, but nervous. He was afraid of failing, that the plan kind of depended on me. It was mostly out of his control now. Something he wasn't used to apparently.

Draco didn't have to do much. Just acting like he supported me throughout everything

I had no idea what to say to Severus. He looked at Mr. Malfoy, probably feeling as uncomfortable as I felt. We sat pretty close to each other, but the mental distance was close to the size of the White Cliffs of Dover.

"We haven't even talked about how you're feeling, Severus," Ms. Malfoy asked from the other side of the room.

"I'm fine, Narcissa, don't worry," he replied.

Ms. Malfoy smiled. "I have enough experience with men to know they are having trouble when they say everything is fine."

"Yes, maybe, you are right," Severus admitted. "But my well-being is not something _I_ can take care of now. That is _someone else's_ problem now."

"That's right. But how are you feeling? I have heard you have just woken up out of a sleep. Was it a long one?"

"Just a day."

"But what are they doing while you're asleep?"

"The Serum can only leave my body through sweating, which is apparently so uncomfortable they don't want me to feel it."

"And why did they stop? Isn't it working out?"

"Well, it's apparently working rather good. My body just needs some rest. They will resume when you all leave."

"It's good you don't feel a thing," Ms. Malfoy stated.

"I guess so," Severus said.

"But pretty frightening, I think. Sleeping while other people do things with your body."

Severus shrugged to indicate he wasn't afraid, but I saw in the fear in his eyes. Who wouldn't be afraid in his position?

"You must feel pretty dirty after all that sweating," Ms. Malfoy stated majestically.

Severus shrugged again, but there was something.

"How do they clean that? You don't look sweaty."

"They use the Levitation Charm to lift me up and then they change the sheets, apparently," Severus explained. "Washing me would be useless. I'm sweating all day long. I got a towel to clean my face for your visit, but that's it."

Ms. Malfoy nodded understandingly, clearly disgusted by the thought of his dirty body.

Severus seemed disgusted as well, but tried to hide it, as if it wasn't cool to feel bad about something.

"So, you're feeling quite okay right now?" I asked him quietly. It was very uncomfortable to sit this close and not say a simple word.

Severus simply rolled his eyes. "I have just talked about that with Ms. Malfoy. Pay attention to others. That's respectful."

Mr. and Ms Malfoy shared a quick look before looking at Severus again.

"Well, you didn't say how you're _feeling_," I stated silently, feeling embarrassed by Severus comment and the silence of the group, who I took to apparently side with Severus.

Severus narrowed his eyes. "Indeed. Well, I'm feeling tired and dirty. Thanks for asking," he snarled.

It remained silent for a moment.

"We need to talk, Severus," Mr. Malfoy stated seriously as he interrupted the silence. "The two of us." He looked at Ms. Malfoy, then at me.

Ms. Malfoy nodded with her head to the door and we left along with Draco.

"Why does dad needs to talk with him alone, mom?" Draco asked as she closed the door behind her.

"I don't know, sweety," she replied as honestly as she could, but didn't buy a single word of it.

We walked through the halls of the hospitals towards the exit. I could secretly peek into other rooms through the windows. They were similar to Severus' room, nothing more, nothing less. He wasn't hidden very carefully, but who would have found him here if Mr. Malfoy hadn't told anybody? Everybody thought he was still at the Ministry.

We walked passed the desk in the main hall when a woman with white hair and a rectangular glasses jumped from behind a pillar.

"Hello, my name is Rita Skeeter of the Daily Prophet," she introduced herself quickly. "Might I ask some questions."

"I don't know," Ms. Malfoy replied hesitantly, but didn't walk away. It was our plan to talk to the press if the opportunity occurred.

From behind the pillar, a piece of parchment and a quill flew towards the woman.

"I wasn't asking you, Ms. Malfoy," the woman quickly said and looked at me. "I was asking her."

"I don't-" Ms. Malfoy started, but was interrupted by the reporter.

"Don't forget to start writing every word down from now," she told the quill as if talking to a flying quill was the most normal thing ever.

The point of the quill moved up and down, quickly, as if it nodded.

"Have you just seen your father?" she asked. It was strange, but the flying quill next to her seemed just as curious as the white-haired woman.

"Ehm," I mumbled, acting as if I was genuinely surprised by her coming. "Yes, I have."

Her flying quill wrote it down on her flying piece of paper. Which made me feel kind of nervous.

"And? How is he doing?" the reporter asked.

"He feels very weak, but his healer has good hopes he will recover, but if he will remains a thing only the future knows."

"You used the word 'healer', a word that's not common used in the Muggle World to describe someone who works in a hospital. How was it to find out about magic and that your father is even a Hogwarts teacher?"

"It was hard at first. I thought all those strange things that happened around me were just coincidences. And learning that is actually you, that you're a witch and can go to a special school to learn to perform real magic, that is a thought you have to get used to. That was just weird."

The quill still wrote down every word. It waited curiously when it was done writing.

"What happened with the Muggles? How did you two end up in trouble with that?" Skeeter asked.

Mr. Malfoy had said I always had to reply vaguely when I wouldn't know what to say, but the best solution was: crying. "Nothing gains more compassion than a crying little girl," he had said. So guess what I did.

"It was so difficult," I sobbed. "But luckily we managed to fool the Muggles and get away."

"Oh, dear," the woman said with a sad smile. "You must feel so sad about all of this."

I nodded. Ms. Malfoy pulled me closer to herself and embraced me.

"I think we can better go home now," she said comforting.

Skeeter smiled sweetly and looked at her flying quill. "You have it all, right?"

The quill moved its point from the left to the right of the piece of parchment, as if it was reading and nodded as it was done.

"Good," she said. "Then we leave it like it is. See you later, Ms. Malfoy."

"Goodbye, Ms. Skeeter," Ms. Malfoy said and the reporter walked away while whispering to her following quill and parchment, which were still floating next to her. What she said was unclear, but the quill was writing everything down, so I expected it to be important for her story.

"Lets go," Ms. Malfoy quickly said as she pushed us to the exit. "That was good, Ellea," she complimented me as we walked through the big doors of St Mungo's.

I thanked her as we walked to the corner where witches and wizards were allowed to park their brooms while they were at St Mungo's. Mr. Malfoy had given me a ride on his broom. Ms. Malfoy and Draco had flown on their own brooms. We had parked at places 32, 33 and 34, so finding them back was easy.

Mr. Malfoy's broom was still at the place he had left it. Which meant he was still inside, talking to Severus.

"We will see what all of this will bring on our paths," Ms. Malfoy stated as she placed her broom between her legs. "Tomorrow we will know."

"Yeah, tomorrow," I replied.

**Author's Note:**

**Hey reader!**

**There is also a new chapter for The Magical Daughter (Snape's perspective) story, which you can find in the stories I have written. It's chapter nine.**

**Last chapter coming up. The next will be the last, but I can say it was fun to write this for you all and I hope you have enjoyed it. Last chapter will be out in three weeks. Summer stuff, you know.**

**Well, see you in three weeks!**


	42. 24 years later

**Author's Note:**

**I have no idea what went wrong with uploading the chapter last time. It came out in some kind of code. Special thanks to Meester Lee for pointing that out. Let's try it again. Enjoy!**

It is now 24 years later since that day in the hospital. And a lot has happened since then. Let's begin from the beginning.

Mr. Malfoy's plan had worked. A picture of me, sitting next to Severus' bed had been on the cover of the Daily Prophet. Everyone had seen it. Everyone talked about it. And the Ministry shit its pants.

They had tried shoving it all under the rug, but thanks to Mr. Malfoy, that hadn't happened. Now I think back to it, things would have turned out so badly if Mr. Malfoy hadn't been there for us.

Severus would have gone to Azkaban for a time no one would know and I... I don't know what would have happened to me, but I guess all would have been a lot more complicated as how it turned out at the end. My children might show a bit more thankfulness for what me and my husband give them.

And yes, I'm married now. I have three beautiful children, who are all Hogwarts students now. 2 Gryffindors and 1 Slytherin. Which is something my children argue a lot about together. But that's what you get when a Gryffindor and a Slytherin decide to have kids. Anyway, that's not the beginning, so let's go back to that.

Everybody in the Wizarding World talked about us and felt pity for our situation. Lucius had been very happy about the enormous success of what he had come up with. And so proud, till a point it started to annoy me.

The Wizarding community knew the entire story and wanted Severus free. It was an enormous scandal of the Ministry in which everybody blamed everybody else. Court members blamed other court members. But strange enough, no one had dared to blame Umbridge. Mr. Malfoy had said everybody in the court was afraid of her. "She even scares the hell out of me sometimes," he had literally said.

The new appointed Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge had been working as Minister of Magic for just a month when the scandal happened. Mr. Malfoy had been very happy about his appointment as Minister of Magic he told me later. Fudge was easy to influence and manipulate. And let manipulation be a thing Slytherins are very good at.

Fudge had still been discovering new rooms he had access to as Minister of Magic, there had still been boxes in his new office, ready to be unpacked and he still had had to meet so much people who closely worked underneath his reign. He was, as everyone would be, very insecure. But had immediately been faced with an enormous problem. The entire government had been stressed out. Everyone tried to save their own ass and the only man who could bring some ease in the stress was Cornelius Fudge, the new and very insecure Minister of Magic.

It had been expected of him to remain calm and be the saviour of the Ministry. He had to make sure the Ministry maintained a good image to the public. Severus fate, my fate, it all didn't matter to the Ministry. We had just became pawns to them. Pawns in their game. It actually looked like a game of chess. Not normal chess, but Wizarding chess. If a piece was eliminated, it disappeared from the game. In real life, something bad would happen to the person. It was a game between Mr. Malfoy and Cornelius Fudge. And Mr. Malfoy knew who his opponent was and knew very well where his pieces were and where he wanted to have them. Fudge on the other hand thought he played Patience. He thought he had all the cards in his hands and had to place them at the perfect place to win the game. But Fudge was wrong.

Aside from how the game had to be played, Fudge's task remained keeping up the good image of the Ministry, but that was an impossible task to carry out. However, it was the task he had gotten.

The other departments distanced themselves from to Justice Department. They had a feeling this wasn't going to end well for the Ministry. They knew Fudge had gotten an impossible task and tried to save what they could. By distancing themselves they hoped not the complete Ministry would fall after Fudge's failed attempt to save the image of the Ministry. If Fudge failed after distancing themselves, only the image of the Justice Department would be destroyed. That would be damage they could repair.

If the other departments stayed loyal to the Justice Department, the public would see that as if the other departments approved the actions of the Justice Department. If Fudge would fail, the complete image of the Ministry would fall. People would probably lose their faith in Fudge. The country would be in complete and utter chaos. People would certainly demand new elections.

Fudge was the most distress of all the people at the Ministry. He had no idea what to do. He knew he had gotten an impossible task and knew he had to try to carry out a plan. But what kind of plan?

Mr. Malfoy told me later he had locked himself up for 48 hours in his new office, desperately trying to come up with a solution, but unfortunately for him, he couldn't find one.

It was even more unfortunate, because the Justice Department found a way to cover itself. Blaming the one who had the final responsibility, Fudge. The Justice Department told the Daily Prophet they were confused by some apparently made remarks by Fudge. The spokesman of the Justice Department claimed the court had understood his remarks wrong and that it was all a big misunderstanding.

When Fudge read that in the Daily Prophet, he was furious. Mr. Malfoy told later he had stormed out of his office and ran directly to Umbridge's office. What happened after that is uncertain, but Fudge came out of Umbridge's office with a red head, a face full of sweat and a load of fear in his eyes.

When the Daily Prophet asked him for clarification, he had indeed made some remarks about the use of Veritaserum, but was strictly against the use for smaller cases like it was used this time. When the reporter asked were the boundary was between a small case and a big case- since the citizens of the Wizarding World found it a big case and Fudge apparently didn't or at least he said it wasn't- Fudge turned his head, mumbled something inaudible and walked away. The reporter walked along and asked him what his actual remarks had been. Fudge became agitated, walked through a door, which led to hallways which were only for people from the Ministry.

Fudge knew taking the guilt upon himself was his best option. He was new, a fresh Minister of Magic, and hoped the public would see his mistake as something that could happen to a new kid on the block.

Cornelius Fudge hadn't become the Minister of Magic by being stupid. He had been right. Even though people were sceptical, most people in the Wizarding World understood that he had to get used to the position.

Strange enough, the Ministry kept a relatively could image by the people. However, the public was unpersuadable about Severus fate. They still recognized the fact the Ministry had made a terrible mistake and that Severus had been the victim of that. The public felt sorry for him and wanted the Ministry to show him mercy. And that was what happened.

Mr. Malfoy told me Fudge had spoken to Umbridge and had nearly ordered her to give him no further punishment. Fudge had thought he had come up with that idea himself, but of course Mr. Malfoy had forced him to think that way. Mr. Malfoy was a master manipulator.

And a day later, Severus' assize had been planned to resume, but unfortunately, it couldn't. Severus had not recovered yet. His treatment had been ended successfully. His healer had been very happy with the results he had made. And I guess, Severus had been happy as well, since he had made it from the edge of death to relatively healthy again. He still had a revalidation to get through, but his recovery was remarkably well for the condition he had been in.

His healer kept him another 5 days for observation. In those 5 days they also practised exercises he had to do after he was allowed to leave St Mungo's.

Severus didn't get any information from outside the hospital, not even when he asked. He was still a prisoner of the Ministry and those weren't allowed to get any information from outside and Severus was no exception.

After the 5 days he was brought back to the Ministry, where the complete court was already waiting for him. But before that, he and the Aurors who had picked him up had to push themselves a way through the crowd of press.

Once in the courtroom, Severus was faced with the same court members as the last time. The only difference were their faces. The last time they had been confident, but this time however, they were filled with insecurity. Even Umbridge wasn't herself.

The court declared they had done their research, had made mistakes and therefore wanted to vote if Severus was allowed to be set free without any further punishment.

The court voted and 'surprisingly' everyone raised a hand. Mr. Malfoy and Fudge had threatened the court members with getting sacked if they dared to vote differently. And therefore it was a surprise no one voted otherwise.

Severus had immediately been released and was allowed to go home. Mr. Malfoy told me later he had waited for him in the hallway, to bring him home and saw Severus walking though secret corridors to the back of the building, to avoid press. He had looked confused, maybe even scared. Probably because 2 tall Aurors were guiding him to the exit.

Mr. Malfoy had placed a hand on his shoulder, which had scared Severus to death, and had offered him a flight home on his broom. Severus had quickly accepted and the two had walked away quickly to get away from the creepy looking Aurors.

Mr. Malfoy had offered him to stay with him and his family for a while, but Severus had declined. Severus later said he had just needed some time for himself. Some rest.

I stayed with the Malfoys another a week after that. The Daily Prophet revealed that the public was pleased with the decisions the Ministry had made. Severus would later say the Daily Prophet had asked for an interview nearly 10 times that week. He had declined every time. Mr. Malfoy had said the Daily Prophet had sent him letters, asking for the same with me. He had declined them for me without even telling me about it.

At the end of the week, the press slowly let go of the story. There was an end and that was that. They weren't getting any interviews with me and Severus and talking to Umbridge and Fudge all the time began to become boring.

After the week, Severus came to the Manor. He saw me playing with Draco. I had been surprised when I saw him. He had been surprised to see me on a broom. I can remember he asked: "and when did you learn that?"

"From Draco," I had replied, afraid he would tell me stop, since he had told me before the problems I wasn't allowed to fly. But that wasn't the case at all. He just nodded and said: "just watch out." Then he walked inside.

Draco and I had looked at each other in confusion, since we had both imagined the first moment of seeing him after the problems would be different. But Severus wasn't the emotional type of person, so we had just played on.

Severus had supper with us that evening and actually came to Malfoy Manor to pick me up, which had felt great.

He told us he felt pretty good and had to do some physical exercises to get back to his old level. He felt more tired than usual, but his healer had good hopes he would fully recover.

Severus had a private conversation with Mr. Malfoy in the library that evening. I still don't know what they have discussed that evening, but they looked very serious when they came out of the library.

That evening, we travelled back to Severus' house in Cokeworth and how strange it might sound, we lived on like before.

Severus did his exercises in the morning. I read a lot. The Dark Arts remained my favourite. Severus even gave some lessons in herbology, the theory behind magic and his second favourite: potion-making. He hadn't wanted to teach me other things, since those were forbidden- the Dark Arts- or they required a wand. And I hadn't had one and wasn't getting one soon.

He liked giving me some lessons, because I was very interested in magic. I was sometimes a bit disappointed I wasn't allowed to learn how to actually perform magic, but laws are laws and we both knew very well what would happen if you break them.

I played with Draco a lot. He had learned me how to play quidditch and it became one of my favourite things to do. I felt so free when I flew on a broom.

Draco and I practised very much and became better and better. His father looked proud as he saw his son flying on his broom. I got the idea Severus had actually been glad he hadn't had to see me flying. He sometimes asked how it had been with Draco, but when I told him about the flying, he looked worriedly, but said nothing.

It went on like this till the summer holiday. Then, suddenly, Severus told what he had in mind for the future.

He wanted to rent an apartment in a town called Hogsmeade, close to Hogwarts, were we could live after he was done working at Hogwarts. A colleague of him did the same and that worked, so he wanted to do the same. He explained that when he was at work I could stay with the landlady of the Three Broomsticks pub. She was willing to watch over me while Severus was gone if I was willing to help her around the pub. I had had mixed feelings about that at that time, because it was really nice Severus had found a way he could still do his work and I could live with him, but someone to watch over me? I had made it through an entire adventure to find my biological father. A few hours alone per day wouldn't be hard. However, I was still young and now I'm older I see he was right at the time.

Madam Rosmerta had appeared to be a very friendly lady. And helping around the pub had been a nice job. She had found me to be a good help around and not so much of a burden and therefore I could come and help the rest of the year.

Severus was very happy with her approval and became a bit more friendly to me. I guess because he now saw I was also willing to help find a good solution.

The apartment was above Dogweed and Deathcap, the Herbology shop, and big enough for the both of us. A small kitchen (which we didn't use that much, since Severus always ate at Hogwarts and I ate lunch and supper with Rosmerta in the pub), a bathroom, a living room and two bedrooms. The rooms were quite small, but we were both happy to have a place to live.

After waking up, I made some breakfast for myself. Severus checked if he had all his stuff, like checked homework, tests or whatever school stuff he had taken home to work on.

He would go off to Hogwarts, while I ate my breakfast and entertained myself till 10:30 AM. At that time, the Three Broomsticks pub would open and prepare for guests who wanted lunch.

Working at the Three Broomsticks pub was the best job ever! I cleaned, helped preparing lunches in the kitchen and did every chore madam Rosmerta gave me.

She liked having me around. She didn't have enough costumers to hire a colleague and I doubted if she earned enough money to hire one if she had even wanted one. However, I was unpaid, which I believe made having me around even better to her.

Madam Rosmerta has learned me how to make Butter Beers from the tap and had told me it was an important skill for when the students of Hogwarts would have their first trip to Hogsmeade of the year. We had prepared for an immense group of Hogwarts students and had bought a triple amount of Butter Beer to hopefully have enough. I couldn't understand how so much people would actually come and drink Butter Beer in the Three Broomsticks. Because in comparison to the other shops in Hogsmeade, we weren't that special. Zonko's Joke Shop, Honeydukes and the Hogsmeade Post Office were much more interesting.

But when I had told Severus about our precautions for the students, he had shaken his head and had wanted to tell it later, so the disappointment would be smaller, but I wasn't allowed to leave the apartment at the day of the trip. It was too risky, according to him.

No one knew Severus lived outside Hogwarts. And certainly not that I lived with him. After we had disappeared out of the news, there had been some rumours we had left the country. Others had said Severus had sent me to a Muggle boarding school to leave the country himself and take some time for himself. But after he had started teaching again, the rumours had stopped. Only his students sometimes wondered what had happened, but had never dared to ask. Severus wasn't really a kind teacher to his students. He was strict, sometimes even cruel.

Only the teachers knew he left Hogwarts after supper and lived with me in Hogsmeade. And that had to stay that way, according to him. Otherwise people would go and spread rumours and start gossiping again. Even though he had always acted like he didn't care, he did and never liked it when he heard people talking about him that way.

The shop owners in Hogsmeade knew we lived there as well. Hogsmeade wasn't a big village, so that wasn't a big issue. Dumbledore had asked them to not tell it to others and keep it a secret. And if Dumbledore asked you something, of course you did it.

Severus wanted to keep it all a secret, so I wasn't allowed to be seen by anyone the day of the trip. I had to stay inside and watch all the students have fun and go into the Three Broomsticks pub. I had hoped our precautions had been enough to feed all the customers. Madam Rosmerta had been disappointed I couldn't help her during the important day, but she luckily understood the situation.

Many trips followed during the year and I became eager to the time I was finally allowed to attend Hogwarts. All the students seemed so happy and even though Severus had told me most of them were ignorant, self-righteous idiots, they seemed like genuinely nice people.

Time passed and the start of my year at Hogwarts came closer and closer. Severus knew I really looked forward to learning how to perform magic. And especially at Hogwarts. Even though he had nearly always spoken badly about Hogwarts, I thought that was just who he was, negative. But I had never imagined what he could he have had in mind.

3 weeks before the summer holidays he told me I wouldn't attend Hogwarts, but Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, in France.

All the clues fell together to realise this had been his plan from the beginning and he had just never told me.

He explained he knew from the beginning I would fall in love with Hogwarts if we lived in Hogsmeade, but there was no other way. He pointed at the reason students at Hogwarts weren't allowed to see me during their trips to Hogwarts. That was the same reasons I was not allowed to attend Hogwarts myself. He had said he was afraid people would bully me for the past.

I was upset I couldn't go after so much dreaming about the possible magical moments at Hogwarts. And angry he hadn't told me sooner. I sneered if it wasn't just no students would laugh at him, that he shamed himself for me. He became angry as well for insinuating that.

We ended up in a big argument which ended with Severus saying: "I don't care what you think about it, you are going!"

We haven't spoken for two days. After that, he tried to make up by explaining he had waited with telling me, because I had wanted to attend to Hogwarts so badly. But that this was really the best for the both of us.

I realised he was right and assented with the plan.

It appeared Severus had already signed me in at Beauxbatons before he had even told me, but I couldn't care anymore. We had argued enough already.

During the summer holiday, we moved back to Cokeworth to spend the summer there.

We didn't do much different things then we had done in Cokeworth before, but that was nice. We went to Diagon Alley to buy my school supplies and that appeared to be harder than expected.

Severus had not wanted to be seen together among so much people (because of rumours), so we went to different shops and bought each a part of the list.

Severus bought the books, quills, parchment and more learning related stuff while I went to the only shop in Diagon Alley that sold school uniforms for Beauxbatons, Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions.

As Madam Malkin was taking measures for my school robe, a boy entered the shop. I immediately recognized him as the boy I had seen in the shop the first time I had visited Diagon alley. I couldn't remember his name, but his face was one you can never forget.

It seemed like the boy had also recognized me and as he approached me and madam Malkin, he greeted us.

Madam Malkin started to take his measures at the same time as mine and me and Ruben talked about what the odds were of seeing each other again at the exact same place.

Ruben got a robe for Hogwarts. He told me his whole family consisted out of Gryffindors and therefore desperately hoped he would become a Gryffindor as well. He was terribly afraid of what his mother would say if he would get sorted into Slytherin.

As he saw the blue fabric madam Malkin returned with, he asked what robe I would get. I told him I was going to Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, but he didn't seem to know it. He had never known there were more magical schools, so he asked everything about it. I had read multiple books about Beauxbatons in the holiday, so I knew the answer to most questions.

Everything about Beauxbatons seemed beautiful, but one thing worried me though. It was located in France. The language would be French. I didn't speak a word French! But Severus had said he knew a way I could speak French in no time. He had told me a lot of people from different nations attended Beauxbatons. And that most of them didn't speak perfect French. The existence of the Language Potion was the solution. The drinker earned the skill to speak a language for a day. If lavender had been added, French would be the language.

Even though Ruben found Beauxbatons very interesting, he was wondering why I wouldn't just attend Hogwarts, like everybody else in the United Kingdom.

I explained my family came from France and would be very proud if I attended Beauxbatons. All a big lie of course, but what could I do? Tell him the truth? Of course not.

Ruben was already done before I was. Hogwarts robes appeared to be easier to take measures for than Beauxbatons robes. He said he still needed to go around Diagon Alley to buy his books for his first year. He explained he really disliked reading. He was more into flying on his broom. A Firebolt, by far not the fastest broom available in the shops, but a reliable model, according to him. Reading was not his thing. His parents had desperately tried to get him to read the Daily Prophet, but he had friendly declined. Reading was the only part about Hogwarts he disliked. And the quidditch team was the best part. He hoped he would make the team, but first year students nearly never made the team. But he hoped he would be the exception to the rule.

I was so happy he hadn't recognized me from the Daily Prophet. I guess most people would have, but there were also people who never read the Daily Prophet apparently.

"Are there also quidditch teams at Beauxbatons?" Ruben had asked.

I had explained to him that there were indeed quidditch teams at Beauxbatons, but not like at Hogwarts. At Beauxbatons, there were no houses like the Gryffindors and the Ravenclaws, so the teams existed out of the nations present at school. So for example Germany had a team, the Netherlands had a team, Belgium had a team and France of course. There were more, but those were the best teams at Beauxbatons.

Ruben liked the idea about the nation-teams and paid madam Malkin for the robe. He would be in Diagon Alley next week to pick up his robe. He asked if I would be there as well, to do the same, then we could hang around together. I said I had to ask my father and he had shrugged. He wrote his address on a note and asked me to send him an owl if I had asked. I agreed and he had walked out of the shop.

Outside, I found Severus in what appeared to be the third bookshop in which he had searched for the right books. But he had finally found them.

And then, the last thing, a wand. He took me to the best shop to buy a wand, Ollivanders. With the first wand Mr. Ollivander handed me, I broke the lamp on the ceiling. With the second, I caused all the boxes with wands to fall out of a closet. I had already felt sorry for everything and had thought it was the best to flee out of the shop before Mr. Ollivader would become very angry, but he handed me a third instead. For the third time I waved the wand around and a golden light had started shining above my head. Mr. Ollivader had smiled and had pointed out this was the perfect wand.

Beech with Dragon heartstring inside. "The true match for a beech wand will be, if young, wise beyond his or her years, and if full-grown, rich in understanding and experience. Beech wands perform very weakly for the narrow-minded and intolerant," Mr. Ollivander had explained. "Compared with the power of the Dragon Heartstring, this wand can perform powerful magic, when in the hands of a talented person."

After Ollivanders, I had pointed at the list with necessities and had pointed out we only had to buy a pet next. Severus had shaken his head and had pointed out I already had an owl. My mother's owl, which was at the owlery of Hogwarts at the time.

As the day at Diagon Alley had ended. I had asked Severus if I was allowed to go to Diagon Alley with someone I knew the week after. He had been confused and had asked who. I explained the situation and he was in doubt. "I know you haven't had any contact with other children last year, so I think it's okay. As long as you don't tell him anything of the past, because I don't trust him," he had said. "Already?" I had asked, but he hadn't answered.

The week after, Severus dropped me off at Diagon Alley and would pick me up at the end of the day. Ruben had waited for me at Quality Quidditch Supplies, a shop he liked to wander around.

Together, we wandered around Diagon Alley. And ate ice cream at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour and it was the best ice cream ever.

It was 2 weeks before our schoolyear would start. We agreed we would keep contact through owl post and left.

After 2 weeks of waiting, the day had come, I would go to Beauxbatons Academy of Magic. Because a lot of students come from abroad, not everyone travels together. The Beauxbatons Carriages pick all the students from one country up in the capital of the country. Which meant that I had to step in in London.

The carriages were light blue, pulled by a dozen winged horses. It looked noble, majestically. And as I stepped in, the carriage appeared to be enormous instead of normal sized, like it looked from the outside.

I was the only student from England and therefore travelled alone from London to Beauxbatons. Nobody knows the exact location, because it is hidden like the other magical schools, for safety, but people think it's somewhere in the Pyrenees mountains.

Severus and I had said goodbye in an uncomfortable way, since I hadn't known what to do and neither had he, so he had given me a pat on the shoulder and that had been it. And before I could have realised I sat in a carriage drawn by flying horses, the carriage had flown high up the sky and the buildings had become smaller and smaller.

I had arrived at Beauxbatons in a few hours of flying. All the other carriages arrived at the exact same time and landed next to the carriage I stepped out of. Out of the other carriages came hundreds of other children. And at that moment, I knew this was going to be the best time of my life.

At Beauxbatons, I got friends, got good grades and became part of the quidditch team in my third year. I was one of the chasers of team Belgium. Why Belgium? Because there was no team for England, since I was the only student from England, and the students from Belgium were open to accept me. The captain had told me later it was because I was a good chaser and they had needed one. I didn't mind, cause I was in _a_ team. And _a_ damn good one too! We had won the quidditch cup in my first year as chaser! After that, all the Belgium students excepted me as one of them.

Of course Ruben was very excited I had made the team. He had done try-outs for the Gryffindor team, but hadn't made it into the team. However, he had had good hopes he would make it next year. But he would never make it. Gryffindor had too much other talented players, according to him.

We had kept contact by writing and our owls had luckily been big enough to handle the flights between England and France.

We only saw each other during the summer holidays. His family was friendly and I was very welcome. I never invited him to my house, since Severus didn't want it and I was afraid how Ruben would react if he found out what had happened in the past.

I had stayed friends with Draco as well. His family welcomed me as well. Ms. Malfoy had been curious about Beauxbatons, while it hadn't interested Draco so much. He only talked about Hogwarts and how that was the best school, even though he hadn't known much about my school.

Draco had talked a lot about Harry Potter in the summer holiday after his first year. He had become seeker of the Gryffindor quidditch team and becoming a player of a quidditch team in your first year is a pretty rare achievement. Draco was jealous as hell, said he hated the boy and that he would show him the power of Slytherin when school would start.

Draco had gotten the place of Seeker in his second year. His father had bought him in by buying Nimbus 2001s for the whole team. Draco had found it to be a good way to get his spot on the team. In contrast to me, who thought people had to earn their spot by having talent.

Draco turned more and more into a spoiled brat and had become an unpleasant person to be around, especially when his friends Crabbe and Goyle were at the Manor as well. When he was alone, he was pretty friendly. But his believes about Muggle-borns, magical creatures and the Muggle World were preposterous and annoying to listen at, to say the least.

I imagine he was having problems with himself, as a teenager. But our contact reduced to only some owl post per year and seeing each other in the summer holiday sometimes.

The only time I saw Ruben and Draco outside the summer holiday was during the Triwizard Tournament.

When Severus had heard the tournament was going to be held at Hogwarts, he had immediately sent a letter and a potion to me at Beauxbatons. He had said I had to take the potion a day before leaving Beauxbatons and had to stay there. The potion would make me sick for 2 days, so I couldn't go to Hogwarts. That would prevent being seen together.

I had really looked forward to the Triwizard Tournament. Especially since Hogwarts and Beauxbatons had an equal score of 62 wins and this year could Beauxbatons take the lead with 1 win.

And even though Severus had had a point, what would be the chance someone would recognize us together? I was years older, I had changed much physically and mentally. I had never taken 'Snape' as my last name and had always kept my old last name. We wouldn't even be together that much, which only reduced the chance of being recognized.

And what would even be wrong with being recognized? What could possibly happen? Yes, people would possibly gossip, but what next? I could handle a bit of gossiping. And it was worth it if the stories about the Triwizard Tournament were true. Only going to the Yule Ball with Ruben was worth the risk already.

So I had not listened to Severus and went to Hogwarts with all the other Beauxbatons students.

Fleur Delacour was the contestant for Beauxbatons. Everyone, except the students from France, found it to be disappointing she had become our contestant. Not because she was French, but because there had been better choices. Greta-Ulrike Nürnberg from Germany had my preference, but unfortunately she hadn't been chosen.

Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory had been the contestants for Hogwarts. Beauxbatons and Durmstrang had found it to be unfair Hogwarts had not 1 but 2 contestants. That way they had more chance to win. But rumour had it Dumbledore had been just as surprised as anyone else. So, we just went along with it.

And then, the Yule Ball. I had already hung around with Ruben a lot during my stay at Hogwarts and to my great pleasure, he had asked me to go to the Yule Ball with him.

We danced nearly the whole evening and the time had seemed to disappear as we moved across the dancefloor. The wizarding band The Weird Sisters played later that night and it was a great success.

Severus had attended the Ball as well, but it seemed more like he had gotten orders to do so. For most of the evening, he stood in a corner, louring. He had not asked someone and therefore just talked to other teachers, who in contrast to Severus, had asked another teacher to the Ball. When the band had started playing, he and most of the teachers had left the Ball. He had given me one last glare and left.

It wasn't really a miracle he acted that way. He had been furious when he had seen me stepping out of the Beauxbatons carriage. As I was finally alone for a moment- at the toilet- he stepped in for a, how he called it, 'little' talk.

I had been walking to the toilet, when suddenly someone grabbed my arm and pulled me to the side. I immediately grabbed my wand and yelled: "Everte Statum!" and my opponent flew in the air and on its back on a safe distance away from me. I turned around, wand at the ready to cast another spell at the target at the ground when I noticed my opponent had been Severus.

"And where the hell is that good for!?" he had whispered on a furious tone.

"I can ask you the same! Sneaking up behind me and just pulling me aside!? You could have just asked me you know!"

He quickly got up and pulled me into the closest broom closet.

"What are you doing!?" I had asked him when he had closet the door and cast Lumos with his wand.

"I want to talk," he had simply said.

"And that needs to happen in a dusty broom closet!?"

"Yes it does. And you know why," He had to whisper, so possible students walking past the closet couldn't hear it, but it was hard for him to suppress the yelling. "And where did you learn to duel like that by the way?"

I couldn't tell him about the little illegal duelling club, so I had just shrugged and asked where he wanted to talk about in this 'very secret closet'.

A group of students passed the closet, clearly coming to the place because of me yelling a spell, but luckily, the group had continued walking.

Severus couldn't believe I had ignored his letter. I lied I had taken the potion, but the nurse had found a way to cure me. That had made him even angrier than he had already been. He said she could have never found a medicine that quickly, since he had invented the potion himself and never used. I said I would just stay away from him and wanted to walk away, but he grabbed my arm and said we weren't done yet. He said he had inspected 'the boy I was having contact with' and that a friendship between us would never go well. He was a Gryffindor and I was- if I had ever attended Hogwarts- clearly a Slytherin. There weren't friendships between Gryffindors and Slytherins and there would never be, since the two despised each other. I told him I would chose my own friends and that we couldn't despise each other since I wasn't a Slytherin, because he had never let me attend Hogwarts. I had stormed out of the broom closet and that was it.

I had done like I had said. I had stayed away from him. We didn't share much looks anymore, which didn't seem to bother Severus, although he sometimes glared a bit guiltily when we did.

Harry Potter won the Triwizard Tournament, to the great displeasure of Draco, who only hated him more now. Ruben couldn't be happier, since Hogwarts had not only won the tournament, but also that a Gryffindor had won. I had been disappointed Beauxbatons had lost, but I had expected it. The Beauxbatons students from France supported Fleur, because in their eyes, she had done great, but that the others had just been better. The other Beauxbatons students rolled their eyes every time she lost a match and said things like: "if the Goblet had chosen Greta, this would have never happened" and "this is just embarrassing".

As a result of a champion's death, despite the new safety regulations imposed, the Triwizard Tournament was discontinued permanently, and no further plans were made to reinstate it. Which was even worse for the students of Beauxbatons, since they had lost from Hogwarts forever with just one win difference.

I got through the rest of my years at Beauxbatons with ease. My first year had gone the best. Only History of Magic appeared to be hard, since there were so much dates and events I had to remember. The other subjects went very great. My teachers had told me I had talent for performing magic. It went pretty easy after really believing I could do it. Because a first spell, especially when you're from Muggle heritage, is very hard. The belief you can really do it is just absent at that moment.

Severus had always been happy with my good grades. Something less to worry about, since he didn't want to receive a letter from Beauxbatons containing information about bad grades. But that had never been necessary.

I was the best of my class in performing magic, something people had always envied. But they saw me reading in the library with my friends quite much, so they expected it came from hard studying. Me and my friends later practised what we had read. Together, we became skilled wand duellists. We had wanted an official duellist club, but Madam Maxime had never allowed us to start one. Too dangerous, according to her. So, as the rebellious teenagers that we were, started our own one, illegally in the dark and abandoned basements of Beauxbatons. Nobody had ever caught us there, since we all went there when everybody in the school had already been sleeping.

My friends were the best. 2 girls from the Luxembourg, Odile and Vera, a boy from Germany, Justus, a boy from the Netherlands, Friso, and my quidditch teammate from Belgium, Matthias. Together, we were the three musketeers, but then twice. Together we could do anything, so we did everything. I would have never made it through Beauxbatons without them.

After Beauxbatons, my friends went to their home countries to see their family. Odile had, not completely unexpectedly, fallen in love Matthias and had taken him with her to Luxembourg so he could meet her family. Vera had needed some rest after so much studying on the end of the year. She went home to Luxembourg to rest. Justus' parents had an export company in standard potion ingredients. He started working in the company as soon as he had graduated. And Friso wanted to become an Auror for the Ministry of The Netherlands. He had to start with his training immediately after graduating, otherwise someone else would get his place.

I had wanted to explore the world. See magical creatures I had only seen pictures off, see magic in other countries. But going home to my beloved England after so much years in France hadn't sounded bad as well. I still wrote with Ruben, who had said he wanted to see more of the world as well.

I had wanted to travel home, but had gotten a letter from Severus. I couldn't come home and that if I wanted to see more of the world, this was the perfect time. He couldn't tell me what was going on, but I had to leave as soon as possible and tell no one where I would go to. He had included a little bag with Galleons for me to live off.

It had all sounded so dangerous, so I had done like he had said. Without telling anyone, I had travelled to Spain and stayed there for a while. I got work in a Muggle restaurant and used the money I earned to buy food. I changed the Galleons for Muggle money and nobody would know I was a witch.

But what I heard later nearly gave me a heart attack. The Battle of the Astronomy Tower. It had been all over the Daily Prophet. Severus had killed Albus Dumbledore. I couldn't believe it and had read the article multiple times, but still, I couldn't believe it. Dumbledore had been such a good man, a good friend of Severus, but Severus had betrayed him and now he was dead. I had imagined this was why he had wanted me gone. So Aurors wouldn't find me when they were searching for him. I kept asking myself the question if he had asked me to flee because the Aurors might think I had something to do with it or because he was afraid I knew something they weren't allowed to know. I didn't know, but I stayed in hiding. Dumbledore was dead. Everybody knew Severus had done it. What could I ever do to help?

But Severus did not only appear to be a murderer, he also appeared to be a Death Eater. A person who despised Muggles and wanted noting to do with Muggle-borns. Death Eaters were known to be against relationships between magical and non-magical people, but that was exactly what he had done. He had not known it at the time, but had broken up after he had found out. He had always been a Death Eater and had never changed. That time we had gotten irrefutable evidence he was my father, the day in the basement, he had said he didn't like relationships between magical and non-magical people, but he had covered it by saying everybody thought about it that way. Had he always hated me after all? After all those years? We had never had a great relationship, but I had always thought that was due to what we had gone through together. And the fact he had always kept me hidden from others. He had told me it was because of rumours and talking or was it to hide me from his Death Eater friends? So they would forget he had had a relationship with a Squib?

I had been confused and had barely slept. The questions had kept me awake. I had lived with him, gotten lessons from him, written to him during my times at Beauxbatons. But above all, I had started to trust him. But that had been one big mistake. And then I read this:

_"Severus Snape, long-standing Potions master at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and wizardry, was today appointed Headmaster in the most important of several staffing changes at the ancient school. Following the resignation of the previous Muggle Studies teacher, Alecto Carrow will take over the post while her brother, Amycus, fills the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. 'I welcome the opportunity to uphold our finest Wizarding traditions and values' —" _

—Daily Prophet, 1 September, 1997

He had become the headmaster of Hogwarts! Under Voldemort's regime! A regime that had wanted to wipe out all the Muggles, Squibs and magical creatures without a purpose to them. Once again, he had proved himself to be relentless.

He ruled over the school with two other Death Eaters, of whom I had heard were relentless as well. I had always seen Severus as a person to like tormenting students, but to enjoy torturing them? The two other Death Eaters did enjoy torturing people and Severus was even higher in rank, so there was nothing good to expect from him.

The Daily Prophet wrote that a lot of parents had taken their children from Hogwarts when Severus had gotten the position. They knew he was a Death Eater as well. Everyone knew it now and who had wanted to flee, fled the country. But even though a lot had left, a lot students stayed at Hogwarts as well.

Later, I read in the Daily Prophet he had ended up in a fight with some teachers, who had been supported by the Order of the Phoenix, and had fled the school. And then the final battle began, the Battle of Hogwarts.

I haven't been there. I have only heard stories, most from Ruben, who has been there, has fought there. He nearly died in a battle against a Death Eater of whom he has later found out the name, Falcon Muloc. He has killed him by making him the target of his Confringo curse. In other words: he made him explode. Pieces of Muloc's body had fallen in front of Ruben's feet and blood had splashed on his clothes. After that, he had fought further, but after the Battle, when he saw all those corpses in the Great Hall, the corpses of Death Eaters alongside the corpses of the wizards from his side, the thought the Death Eater he had fought against couldn't be there made him cry. That his body would never return to his family. He found out later the man had children, toddlers, who now had to miss their father. He had been devastated and had locked himself up in a bedroom for 2 days until he had to come out to not starve to death.

I had read about the Battle in the Daily Prophet and had travelled as fast as I could back to England. The Battle had already ended, but I was afraid for Ruben's life and how strange it might sound, Severus' as well. Even though he had betrayed me, I still had to make sure he was alive. If he was, but was injured, who would take care of him? I had seen on the pictures in the Daily Prophet St Mungo's was full of injured fighters. And who do you think they help first, a brave wizard who has fought on the side of Harry Potter or a dirty Death Eater? Easy question. Somewhere in my mind I wanted to help him, take care of him if needed, but the other side said I had to let him die. He was a dirty Death Eater. He didn't deserve better. But all those summers together, did those truly mean nothing?

8 hours later I had arrived. Hogwarts had been damaged to the bone. It had been stripped of all its former glory, which had been replaced with the sight of a warzone.

As I ran inside, I immediately saw all the bodies on the floor. On the left, hundreds of bodies, unmoving, utter silence, faces covered with blankets. And on the right at least 50 bodies. Some squirming and moaning, some reclining with still heavily bleeding wounds. I quickly looked around, but no Severus or Ruben among the casualties on the right. I had looked at the left and had feared for their lives more than ever.

7 healers were busy helping the injured wizards. I asked them if they had seen a boy called Ruben between the casualties, but the healers were very busy and quickly stated they had seen so many casualties they really couldn't remember all their names. However, when I asked if they had seen Severus, they flinched and pointed at a group of people at the corner. A man walked into the room, levitating a stretcher with a body, face covered with a blacked. I feared the answer to my question wouldn't be good.

As I came closer, I noticed one of the students was Harry Potter himself. That didn't stop me from asking him my question, but as I did, his face turned white.

He had asked why I had wanted to know that, but the red-haired man had laid a hand on his shoulder and had said I was family. He had seemed to have understood the message, inspected me from head to toe and had then asked me to go upstairs with him.

And there he was. Or well, his body was. His soul had already left his body. His hart would never beat again. Those eyes would never open again. Everything had stopped, forever.

Harry had told me Severus had been killed by Nagini, Voldemort's snake, during the Battle of Hogwarts. He had been there when he had died, had heard his last words and had seen the bravest man he had ever known before he had taken his last breath.

Harry explained everything, calmly. How he had gotten Severus' tears, how he had seen his memories, how he had turned to the good side because of his love for Lilly Potter, how he had seen he had been a spy for Dumbledore, how he had tried to help Harry's parents to escape Voldemort and also how much Severus had loved his mother Lilly.

My heart broke after hearing that. I had been wrong about everything. Severus hadn't been a Death Eater. He had been helping the Order of the Phoenix all along. He had always been on their side. Till the end. I felt horrible. I had never contacted him after the Battle of the Astronomy Tower. How I had never thought he might be good made me feel sick. I had wronged him. And now, he was dead and I could never turn back time to make other decisions.

I ended up crying after I had realised how he must have felt after killing his good friend Dumbledore, after everyone in the Wizarding World thought he was a Death Eater and how he must have felt when the bites of the giant snake tore open his body.

Harry had placed a hand on my shoulder and said he knew how it felt to lose a loved one and that he was sorry for me. He explained he had left him in a private chamber, because nobody knew he had always been on Harry's side yet. People would presumably spit on or kick against his already dead body for what he had done as a Death Eater. And according to what Harry had seen with Severus' tears, he hadn't deserved that.

Harry had left me alone with Severus body after he had nothing to explain anymore. I had been alone with Severus' body, kneeled next to his bed and cried for who knows how long. His hand was cold as I touched it, his face paler than normally. This was truly the end of Severus Snape, for once and for all. Forever. Always.

Healers came to collect the bodies from the dead, including Severus'. They would keep the bodies at St Mungo's until family would come for one.

I had gone to St Mungo's to try and find Ruben, but apparently the entire Wizarding World had come to St Mungo's to find their loved ones. So I didn't even get into the building.

There were an awful a lot of funerals the next week. Severus' as well. I had remembered Harry had told me about Severus' unconditional love for Lilly Potter, his mother, and therefore I had asked if Harry thought his parents would have found it okay if Severus would be buried at the same graveyard. I had to ask. It would have not been fair, because of their messy history together. But Harry said his parents would have never wanted it any other way had they known about Severus' bravery and his attempt to save their lives.

And so it happened. Severus would be buried at Godric's Hollow graveyard. There had been an article in the Daily Prophet about Severus' true colours, which had shocked the world. The date and place of his funeral had been included in the article. I knew Severus had never had much friends, so I had only expected Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, the Malfoy's and some old colleagues of him. I had planned carrying his coffin with them from the entrance of the graveyard to his grave. He had gotten the place next to Lily's and James' and I had gotten the idea Harry had had something to do with that.

However, instead of a few people, hundreds and hundreds of people had come. Godric's Hollow was full of in black dressed people. And everybody wanted to shake my hand to given me their condolences. They explained their acquaintance to Severus and most of them appeared to be old students of him.

Instead of carrying the coffin from the entrance of the graveyard, we had to carry it from the entrance of the village. The hearse could impossibly make it to the entrance of the graveyard with so much people.

I carried the coffin through the streets with Ron, Hermione, Harry, Mr. Malfoy and Draco. People stood on the side of the road, in utter silence as we passed. Once we had buried Severus, I gave a speech about me and Severus. I told them we had had a rough time together. First with the Muggles, then with the Ministry, but that after that we had really bonded. And that after the Battle of the Astronomy Tower, I had felt betrayed, because of my heritage. That I had believed he was bad, just like everybody else. And that when he had died, I had found out the truth and that that had been painful. If we could go back in time we would all like to change things- the Malfoy's had now stared to the ground-, but that we can't go back years and change it.

Harry had given his speech as well, together with Ron and Hermione. McGonagall spoke for all the colleges after the trio and Neville spoke for the rest of the students after her, about how he had killed Nagini, but that we wouldn't get him back with killing his murderer.

After the funeral, I went to the Three Broomsticks pub in Hogsmeade to drink all the sadness away, accompanied by Harry, Ron and Hermione. However, I had apparently been followed by someone else.

Ruben had entered the bar 15 minutes after us and had joined us at the bar. I had given him a big hug and had told him I had tried to find him in St Mango's, but hadn't found him because of the enormous amount of people. He had understood and explained that the administration at St. Mungo's was a mess at the moment, due to so much casualties. He had been one of the lucky ones, "only some flesh wounds," he had said, which had given me the indication a lot of people were on the edge of dying.

Ruben had been their during the funeral, but hadn't found it appropriate for a reunion during Severus' funeral. Together with Ruben and the golden trio, I drank the night away.

I have never let go of Ruben again. We married 2 years later, gotten three beautiful children, who all go to Hogwarts now, and are very happy with our family.

Ruben still has problems talking about the Battle of Hogwarts and preferably avoids the subject. He still feels guilty about killing that Death Eater sometimes, but nowadays he knows how to tell himself he did the best thing he could do at that moment.

We both became Aurors for the Ministry and are pretty skilled in our job, if I might say so. Together, we have found a lot of ex-Death Eaters who had managed to flee the country after their lost battle.

My children know my past and what has all happened. We frequently visit Severus grave to put some new flowers on it. After the funeral, his grave got the gravestone with the text: 'For ever in the heart, always'. Everybody thought it meant we would keep Severus' memory in our hearts, but Harry and I knew the real meaning. We knew Severus had always been in love with his mother and that that had been the reason why he had died in the long run. But his love for Lily Potter has never been revealed to the public.

His name will live forward in history books, his memory in our minds. I don't know what I would have become without you, Severus. I hope you have found eternal peace. You deserve it.

Ellea

**The End**

**Author's Note:**

**Well, that was it, the story has ended. I hope you've liked it. Thank you all for the support during the writing. It has encouraged me to write on. It takes a lot of time to write a chapter and then later check the grammar and such, but thanks to your support, the story has an ending.**

**There's also the last chapter for The Magical Daughter (Snape's perspective) story, which you can find in the stories I have written. It's chapter ten.**

**Please leave in the reviews if you have enjoyed reading my story. I would appreciate it.**

**See you in another fanfic maybe!**


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